The new NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte does not currently see a danger of a Russian attack on the territory of the defense alliance, but he has concerns about the future, DPA reported.
“I am not afraid for now“, he said in an interview in response to a question about whether NATO countries should be afraid of Russia. “If we do not spend more and do not produce more, we will have a serious problem in four or five years“, he added, however.
Russia has significantly increased its defense production because of the war in Ukraine, DPA reports. According to Rutte, NATO allies are still not doing enough to counter this.
“We need to strengthen defense production, the defense industrial base“, he said. “They need to establish additional production lines because we are not producing enough military products to defend ourselves in the long term“, Rutte pointed out.
He also said he expected pressure from US President-elect Donald Trump, who has threatened to withdraw from NATO during his term if allies do not spend 2% of GDP on defense.
“He will want us to do more. And he is right. We must do more,” Rutte said.
NATO allies have committed to investing at least 2% of GDP on defense and many European allies have now reached that target, the secretary general noted.
Rutte did not specify, however, whether NATO allies should set a target of spending 3% of GDP or even more.
A decision on new spending commitments is expected to be made at the alliance’s summit next June, DPA reported.
During the US election campaign, Trump said he believed it was necessary to increase NATO’s defense spending commitment to 3%. There have also been recent reports that Trump may even ask for 5%.
Germany is expected to spend around 2.1% of GDP on defense this year.