From Rising NATO Defence Spending to Industrial and Innovation Capacity: Suggested Procurement Approach and Policy Actions for Belgium

Preceding the NATO 2025 summit, Belgium has substantially increased its defence spending trajectory. Given NATO-wide aggregate demand increases for defence systems, combined with constrained supply and import dependence, these increased expenditures run the risk of being reduced in real purchasing terms. To mitigate demand inflation, reduce dependency, and generate economic returns that help ease fiscal pressures, rebuilding industrial capacity and innovation is therefore essential. To enable the BEDTIB to contribute to these needs, more strategic long-term procurement and support is required. This short discussion paper outlines the broader issue and Belgian-specific obstacles to strategic procurement, before discussing pitfalls and possible policy actions for more strategic procurement. The paper argues that Belgium’s best path lies in a combination of leveraging available international cooperative procurement and development mechanisms, including government-to-government industrial cooperation to integrate the BE-DTIB effectively into wider European value chains.