NATO allies have agreed to massively boost military spending while affirming their “ironclad commitment” to collective defence, Aljazeera reported.

Leaders from the 32-member bloc pledged to allocate up to 5 percent of their national GDP to defence and related sectors by 2035, describing the move as a “quantum leap” in collective security.

The new pledge was made in a summit communique agreed on Wednesday in The Hague. It stated that members would “invest 5 percent of GDP annually on core defence requirements as well as defence- and security-related spending”.