{"id":3845,"date":"2026-06-25T22:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T22:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/3845\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T22:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T22:43:10","slug":"nato-boss-to-be-tough-but-discreet-on-defence-spending-goals-amid-uk-row-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/3845\/","title":{"rendered":"Nato boss to be \u2018tough but discreet\u2019 on defence spending goals, amid UK row \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nato chief Mark Rutte has said he will be \u201ctough but discreet\u201d in ensuring member states meet their defence spending commitments, amid a dispute in Britain over future military funding.<\/p>\n

The alliance\u2019s secretary general made a veiled reference to the current row when he named-checked the UK in pointing out that when countries have to \u201creally step up\u201d their investment in their armed forces \u201cof course there will be discussions\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Rutte said making certain nations had a \u201ccredible path\u201d to spending 5% of economic output on defence by 2035 was one of the issues that would raised at a crucial Nato summit in Ankara, Turkey, early next month.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe alliance\u2019s secretary general said disagreements are \u2018normal\u2019 (Manuel Balce Ceneta\/AP) (Manuel Balce Ceneta\/AP Photo\/Manuel Balce Ceneta) <\/p>\n

The commitment is split into a 3.5% gross domestic product (GDP) core defence spending commitment, and a 1.5% GDP commitment to wider resilience spending.<\/p>\n

\"King<\/a><\/p>\n

John Healey quit as defence secretary earlier this month because a long-delayed military investment plan was only due to provide an extra \u00a313.5 billion, far short of the \u00a328 billion over four years which officials had argued for.<\/p>\n

He suggested the UK was on course to spend only 2.68% of GDP on core defence by 2030, casting doubt on the country\u2019s ability to meet its Nato target of 3.5% by 2035.<\/p>\n

Washington has also piled on the pressure in response, urging the UK to bolster its military strength with \u201curgency, scale and determination\u201d.<\/p>\n

Outgoing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to publish the defence investment plan (Dip) ahead of the Nato leaders\u2019 summit on July 7, despite the fact it will be left to his likely successor Andy Burnham to implement it and who may have a different view.<\/p>\n

Speaking at an event in Washington, hosted by the Atlantic Council international affairs think tank, Mr Rutte said: \u201cWhen countries have to really step up their defence spending, yes, of course, there will be discussions.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the United Kingdom, look at Italy, look at the Netherlands, look at all countries in Nato, because you have to maybe find the money elsewhere, or you have to make savings to be able to spend on defence.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this is the first task of every government to keep the nation safe. So in the end, it happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe US president has previously dismissed Nato as \u2018a paper tiger\u2019 (Jacquelyn Martin\/AP) (Jacquelyn Martin\/AP Photo\/Jacquelyn Martin) <\/p>\n

Pressed over whether members were on course to meet the defence funding target, Mr Rutte said: \u201cWhen I look across the board now, Europe and Canada, I must say they\u2019re doing well.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, you always have some difference between one and the other country in terms of the credible path to the 5% and that\u2019s one of the issues we will discuss in Ankara.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also insisted the 3.5% core figure had not been \u201cplucked from the air\u201d like the 2% target set at the 2014 Nato summit in Wales.<\/p>\n

Mr Rutte added: \u201cAll these countries are busy now and making sure that they over time will deliver on all these targets.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I think we are in pretty good shape and if there are one or two who need a bit of encouragement, I will do that discreetly, and I can assure you that it\u2019s tough but discreet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stressing the importance of spending targets being delivered in the face of the threat posed by Russia, he said: \u201cBecause in the end Putin is not afraid of commitments, he is afraid of (us) implementing those commitments, and that\u2019s exactly what we are doing, Vladimir, we will defend ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nato summit comes at a critical time with Donald Trump casting doubt on the commitment of the US to the alliance that he has branded \u201ca paper tiger\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"USUS defence secretary Pete Hegseth has also been critical of fellow Nato members (Virginia Mayo\/AP) (Virginia Mayo\/AP Photo\/Virginia Mayo) <\/p>\n

The US president argues America has been bankrolling the defence of other countries, with tensions further fuelled over his designs on Greenland, which belongs to fellow Nato member Denmark, and the response of allies, including the UK, to the Iran war.<\/p>\n

Last week, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth announced a review of American military forces in Europe at a meeting of Nato defence ministers, as he criticised members who \u201chave yet to show a credible path\u201d towards meeting their spending commitments.<\/p>\n

But Mr Rutte has sought to smooth relations, praising Mr Trump for securing a substantial increase in defence funding by members, while insisting European allies had been there for the US during the conflict bar some \u201cisolated cases\u201d.<\/p>\n

Debates and differences were to be expected given the transformation Nato was undergoing, Mr Rutte argued.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIf sometimes we fight each other a bit, that\u2019s normal. We are democracies. This is the difference between us and dictatorships.\u201d<\/p>\n

Underlining the importance of the alliance to America, he said: \u201cWe need the US and Europe to stay together, because this is also about the defence of the United States, preventing these nuclear submarines from Russia ending up at the shores here, Europe being a platform of power protection for the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nato chief Mark Rutte has said he will be \u201ctough but discreet\u201d in ensuring member states meet their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[543,56,299,7,50,457],"class_list":["post-3845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-ankara","tag-defence-spending","tag-mark-rutte","tag-nato","tag-politics","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}