The NATO chief Mark Rutte has told member states to raise their defence from 2% GDP or start taking a “Russian language course.”
NATO’s Secretary General jokingly told the European Parliament that allies they must spend more on defence warning that if “we don’t” we will not be safe within “four or five years.”
Rutte said, “Everything I’m seeing at this moment is not nearly enough, and if we don’t do it (raise the spending targets) we are safe now but not in four or five years.
“So if you don’t do it, get out your Russian language courses or go to New Zealand.
“Or decide now to spend more, and that’s exactly the debate we have to finalize over the next three or four months, to stay safe in this part of the world.”
Over the weekend the Financial Times reported that European NATO Foreign Ministers has started discussions over the alliance’s defence spending from the current 2% to 3% by 2030.
The FT’s sources said that NATO members will increase defence spending to 2.5% before they aim for 3% from 2030.
Earlier this month the US President elect Donald Trump has told allies that they must raise their defence spending and “NATO should have 5%” of their GDP.
Trump has said that NATO must raise their defence spending to up their game on security and this echoes what the NATO chief Mark Rutte has been insisting.
Allies are proposing to spend 3% by 2030 which is far below what Trump is strongly advising as he is trying to put incentives for the 32-members of the alliance to take more responsibility for their security.
Poland spends the largest proportion on defence of 4.12% in 2024, whilst the US spends 3.38% of their GDO and Estonia spends 3.43%, the UK is only spending 2%.
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