NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has stressed the need to increase defense spending, strengthen the defense industry and expand production, acknowledging that the alliance does not produce enough military products to defend itself in the long term.
As Day.Az reports, Rutte said this in an interview with the DPA agency.
“If we don’t increase defense spending, we will have serious problems in 4-5 years,” he warned.
However, he does not believe that Russia is currently allegedly capable of launching an attack on the territory of the alliance. “We don’t need to be afraid now. But in the long term, I’m worried,” said the NATO Secretary General.
In his opinion, the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance are not yet taking sufficient measures to counter the large-scale expansion of arms production in Russia. “We need to strengthen the defense industry and expand production. We need to organize additional production lines and shifts because we do not produce enough military products to protect ourselves in the long term,” Rutte said. “We still have time to prepare and strengthen our deterrence to prevent war on NATO territory. But we must act now,” he argues.
At the same time, the NATO Secretary General explained that he expects new pressure from US President-elect Donald Trump in discussions about the relatively low defense spending of European allies. “He will want us to do more, and he is right. We must do more,” Rutte stated. Overall, he said, European allies currently spend 2% of GDP on defense. However, Rutte did not say whether he thought it would be appropriate to increase NATO’s defense spending target to 3% of GDP or even more.
A decision on this issue is expected to be made before the NATO summit in June next year, DPA writes. On December 20, the British newspaper Financial Times reported that US President-elect Donald Trump, through his representatives, notified a number of European NATO allies of his intention to demand that they increase defense spending by up to 5%.