While Donald has already made it known that NATO allies should invest at least 5% of their national wealth in military equipment (compared to less than 2% currently), the new NATO Secretary General comes, in a way , cut the pear in half.
In front of European deputies, Mark Rutte declared that the budgetary effort of the allies must, in the future, be greater than 3% of the GDP of the members of the Atlantic Alliance.
All 32 allies have previously committed to the goal of spending 2% of their GDP on defense, but so far only 23 of NATO members are meeting that goal.
However, for Mark Rutte, this threshold is already obsolete to ensure the security of the alliance. “To be honest, 2% is not enough to stay safe in the years to come. As parliamentarians, you know well that security is not free.” insisted Mark Rutte in front of MEPs.
And to explain that Member States will have to find ways to increase joint purchases and use existing infrastructure, otherwise they will face an increase in defense spending of up to 3.7% for NATO allies.
“If you make joint purchases and use NSPA (the NATO Support and Supply Agency, editor’s note) and everything else within NATO and the EU, then you can deduct joint purchases, you can deduct innovation (from the overall estimate of 3.7%)”explained Mark Rutte.
To illustrate his point, the former Dutch Prime Minister took the example of the Ukrainians, who, in the midst of war, are experimenting with new, less expensive radar systems to detect enemy missiles.
The Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance was careful not to make explicit reference to the 5% objective called for on several occasions by future American President Donald Trump, but he stressed that in view of the capacity needs emerging from the process of NATO’s internal planning, the new objective must indeed be higher than 3%.
Donald Trump reiterated last week that members of the military alliance should spend 5% of their gross domestic product on defense – and some EU countries, like Germany, have already rejected this appeal, considering it too costly.
“This would only be possible with massive tax increases or massive cuts in many of the things that are important to us”German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Monday at a campaign rally in the German city of Bielefeld.
Last December, Mark Rutte had already called on European and Canadian citizens to make sacrificessuch as cuts to their pension, health and security systems, in order to increase defense spending and ensure long-term security in Europe.
But the objective of 5% would require hundreds of billions of dollars additional financing, and some of the bloc’s largest economies, such as Spain, Belgium or Italy, do not even reach the 2% target.
NATO allies are expected to decide on the new defense spending target at a summit in The Hague next June. Discussions which already promise to be tense with the new American president.
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