Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Thursday that it would take his country at least 10 years to increase defense spending and meet new targets to be agreed by NATO, adding that an agreement on them could be reached soon, Reuters reported.

Italy is one of the leaders in defense spending in the Western military alliance, spending just 1.49 percent of gross domestic product last year against the current target of 2 percent, according to NATO. Rome said it will meet the 2% target in 2025, but mainly through a series of accounting changes that will add items not previously included to defense budget calculations.

“I believe we can work well with NATO and arrive at the Hague summit with a pre-prepared agreement so that NATO can demonstrate its unity,” Tajani said, speaking alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. The alliance leaders will meet in The Hague on June 24-25.

 Defense Minister Guido Crozetto, speaking in parliament, said Italy was “not in a position” to meet U.S. requests for NATO allies to increase their defense budgets to 5 percent of GDP, and said it was not easy to meet the interim target of 3.5 percent. 

Italy has limited room to spend as its huge public debt is projected to rise to nearly 138% of GDP in 2026 before shrinking next year.