NATO chief calls for boost in military budgets
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is calling for significantly higher defence spending in view of the geopolitical confrontation with Russia.
"We have to stand ready so it will be considerably more than the 2% we were used to," Rutte said during a visit to Lithuania. He said that the alliance's current annual defence-related spending target of 2% of economic output is no longer adequate to address today's security challenges.
The host, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, also called on the allies to invest significantly more money in the military. "Russia will not wait," Nausėda said.
Rutte took part in a one-day meeting of the so-called Bucharest Nine Group (B9) and the Nordic countries in Vilnius.
The summit, which was also attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, served to prepare for the NATO summit in around three weeks' time in The Hague.
The B9 includes Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Nordic states are Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.
Nausėda warned that Russia is trying to consolidate and rebuild its armed forces as quickly as possible. "We have very limited time to do the same," he said. "I hope we will be able to reach the agreement regarding the 5% of GDP target."
There is no need to talk about very long timetables or additional deadlines of 2035 or 2040, he added.
US President Donald Trump is demanding that the alliance partners spend 5% of their economic output on defence.
Rutte recently proposed a compromise formula of increasing defence-related spending to 3.5% and spending an additional 1.5% on infrastructure. He assumes that the NATO states would agree to this.
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