Routte confident in the 5% spending agreement of NATO: “It is important that we spend more”
The NATO general secretary, Mark Rutte, has been confident that leaders will today approve the commitment to increase 5% of GDP the defense spending in the coming years, and has ruled out that the reluctance of Spain, which has negotiated flexibilities bilaterally, will cause a dispute during the two long hours of meeting in the Hague.
“I do not worry,” tensions, he told the media upon his arrival. At the same time, he has recognized that they are “difficult decisions”, which is not easy to many countries to increase an expense when up to 8 countries did not yet plan this year to reach 2% agreed in 2014. But “it is important that we spend more” in the face of increasing external threats. “It’s true, countries have to find money, it is a political decision, but, at the same time, I am convinced that in the face of threats there is no alternative, we have to do it,” he insisted.
Rutte, great ally of US President Donald Trump, has once again highlighted his role. “The countries that did not reach 2%, do you think they would have done so if Trump had not been elected president?” He asked the media, to which he has assured not to feel ashamed of the publication by the American of the laudatory text messages that sent him the eve. “It is an affirmation of facts,” he insisted, as he has assured the “total commitment” of the United States and Trump with NATO despite the fact that the Republican has re -questioned article 5 that guarantees allied solidarity in case one of them is attacked.
