NATO Chief Calls On Allies To Increase Defense Spending, Shift To War-Time Mindset
Date
12/12/2024 7:09:01 PM
(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA))
BRUSSELS, Dec 12 (KUNA) -- NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Thursday urged the 32 NATO Member States to ramp up defense spending and defense production as the security environment is becoming increasingly turbulent.
"If we don't spend more together now to prevent war, we will pay a much, much, much higher price later to fight it," NATO Secretary General said at an event hosted by Carnegie Europe in Brussels on Thursday.
Rutte called on Allies to "shift to a wartime mindset and turbo charge our defense production and defense spending."
He warned that the 2 percent of GDP most NATO allies spend on defense is not enough in the long term to deter potential adversaries.
"If we stick at 2 percent, yes we are safe now, but in four, five years we might not be safe anymore and the deterrence might be too weakened to keep ourselves safe from whatever happens in Russia and other parts of the world," he said.
The NATO chief admitted that while there were no imminent threats to the allies, the danger was moving "at full speed" towards the transatlantic alliance. "We are not at war, but certainly not at peace either," he said.
Eight of NATO's current 32 members have not yet reached the 2 percent benchmark, including EU countries such as Italy, Belgium and Spain. (end)
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