NATO countries are using creative math to meet the U.S. president’s demand to more than double annual spending, partly by expanding what counts beyond soldiers and weapons.

NATO member states signed off on the military alliance’s most ambitious military ramp-up since the Cold War as leaders closed in on an agreement to ratchet up spending at a summit later this month.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday he was confident that members of the NATO alliance would sign up to Donald Trump's demand for a major boost in defence spending, adding that it had to happen by a summit later in June.