North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Secretary General Mark Rutte has called for a significant rise in defence budgets in response to the ongoing geopolitical standoff with Russia.
“We have to stand ready so it will be considerably more than the 2 per cent we were used to,” Rutte said during a visit to Lithuania, referring to the alliance’s current annual defence spending target as a share of economic output.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda echoed the sentiment, urging allied nations to increase their funding for military preparedness. “Russia will not wait,” Nausėda warned.
Rutte attended a one-day summit in Vilnius involving the Bucharest Nine (B9) Group and the Nordic countries. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was also in attendance, with the summit serving as preparation for the NATO gathering scheduled to take place in The Hague in three weeks.
The B9 comprises Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The Nordic participants included Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland.
Nausėda cautioned that Russia is working swiftly to rebuild and reinforce its military capabilities. “We have very limited time to do the same,” he said, adding that he hopes NATO members will agree to a new target of 5 per cent of GDP for defence spending.
He also dismissed the need for extended deadlines. “There is no need to talk about very long timetables or additional deadlines of 2035 or 2040,” he added.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump has also called on NATO partners to allocate 5 per cent of their economic output to defence. As a compromise, Rutte has proposed increasing defence spending to 3.5 per cent, with an additional 1.5 per cent dedicated to infrastructure. He expressed optimism that NATO members would agree to this plan.
(NAN)