NATO Secretary General Mark Ruttelaunched on Thursday a strong warningurging European countries to increase your defense investments to confront the threat of a possible future conflict with Russia.
During his first major speech since taking office in October, Rutte declared in Brussels that Alliance nations are not prepared for the challenges that could arise in the next four or five years: “The danger is advancing towards us at full speed.”
In this sense, he emphasized that the war in Ukraine has revealed the need to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank y increase weapons production to match Moscow’s efforts. Although there is no imminent military threat, the NATO leader notes that alliance must act “faster and more fiercely” to avoid a future conflict on European territory.
He also pointed out that Russia, China, North Korea e Iran They are actively working to weaken North America and Europe. “We are not at war, but we are certainly not at peace”he said, adding that citizens of NATO countries must be willing to make sacrifices to ensure future security.
A “war mentality”
In this way, Rutte called for adopting a “war mentality” and significantly increasing defense spending. “If we don’t spend more together now to prevent war, we will pay a much, much, much higher price. then to fight her. Not billions, but trillions of euros,” he warned. “During the Cold War, Europeans spent much more than 3% of their GDP on defense. With that mentality we won the Cold War,” he added.
At the moment, 23 of NATO’s 32 countries are on track to meet the minimum target of 2% of GDP in military spendingestablished last year, with Spain at the bottom with 1.28% and the forecast of reaching that bar in 2029.
However, the secretary general warned that this percentage will not be enough. ““I can tell you that we are going to need a lot more.”he assured. From their point of view, NATO allies will have to skyrocket military spending and invest 4% of GDP in Defense if they do not invest more in military innovation and make joint purchases of weapons.
However, he explained before setting a new spending figure there must be more consultations between allies y analyze investment objectives in military capabilities and innovationto prevent the objective set from being too “simplistic”.
In any case, the former Dutch Prime Minister stressed that NATO members have to “spend better” to reinforce their defenses. “If we only spend more and not spend better, we will have to go to at least 4% spending”he reflected.
