Today's Edition
BRUSSELS (ALETIHAD)
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Wednesday called on European states to increase defence spending.
“If you want to keep the deterrence at the present level, 2% is not enough,” Rutte said in a press conference Wednesday after chairing a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.
“We can now defend ourselves and nobody should try to attack us…but I want that to stay the same in four or five years,” he said.
Asked about US President-elected Donald Trump position on NATO, he said: “Let me first of all say that it was President Trump who has pushed us to ramp up defence spending… and I have said before, not because of Trump, but I believe strongly, and I know many Allies believe strongly that 2% is simply not enough.”
“We cannot have a situation where we just pay more for the same and we see large kickbacks to the shareholders,” he said.
Trump, who will take office on January 20 after sweeping victory, had during his presidential term (2017-2021), already criticised a supposed lack of balance between allies when it came to funding NATO.
The NATO chief said allies are working to deliver on the financial pledge of 40 billion euros in security assistance for Ukraine in 2024 that were pledged during the Washington Summit this year.
Speaking to reporters at the end of the meeting, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “this is a time for every ally to lean in, not lean back”.
“A stronger NATO means more capabilities to deter aggression, more effective allies to meet more complex challenges, and the peace and stability that allows our people to pursue fuller lives,” Blinken said in a press conference Wednesday on his last visit to Brussels for a NATO meeting.
In remarks to the press on the second day of the meeting, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said that “the time to act is now”.
“We’re living in very dangerous times…We urge all allies across the NATO family to get serious about defence spending,” Lammy told reporters at the NATO headquarters.
