{"id":170781,"date":"2025-06-09T17:18:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T17:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/170781\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T17:18:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T17:18:13","slug":"nato-chief-seeks-quantum-leap-in-defense-and-warns-about-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/170781\/","title":{"rendered":"NATO chief seeks ‘quantum leap’ in defense and warns about Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON (AP) \u2014 NATO<\/a> members need to increase their air and missile defenses by 400% to counter the threat from Russia, the head of the military alliance said Monday, warning that Moscow could be ready to attack it within five years.<\/p>\n

Secretary-General Mark Rutte said during a visit to London that he expects the 32 NATO members to agree to a big hike in military spending<\/a> at a summit in the Netherlands this month.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the Chatham House think tank, Rutte said Russia is outpacing the far bigger NATO in producing ammunition, and the alliance must take a \u201cquantum leap\u201d in collective defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cWishful thinking will not keep us safe,\u201d Rutte said. \u201cWe cannot dream away the danger. Hope is not a strategy. So NATO has to become a stronger, fairer and more lethal alliance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rutte has proposed a target of 3.5% of economic output on military spending and another 1.5% on \u201cdefense-related expenditure\u201d such as roads, bridges, airfields and sea ports. He said he is confident the alliance will agree to the target at its summit in The Hague on June 24-25.<\/p>\n

At the moment, 22 of the 32 members meet or exceed NATO\u2019s current 2% target, which was set in 2014. Rutte said he expects all to reach 2% by the end of this year.<\/p>\n

The new target would meet a demand by U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> that member states spend 5% of gross domestic product on defense. Trump has long questioned the value<\/a> of NATO and complained that the U.S. provides security to European countries that don\u2019t contribute enough.<\/p>\n

Rutte said he agreed that \u201cAmerica has carried too much of the burden for too long.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rutte said NATO needs thousands more armored vehicles and millions more artillery shells, as well as a 400% increase in air and missile defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see in Ukraine how Russia delivers terror from above, so we will strengthen the shield that protects our skies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia could be ready to use military force against NATO within five years,\u201d Rutte added. \u201cWe are all on the eastern flank now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rutte also held talks Monday with Prime Minister Keir Starmer and praised the U.K.’s commitment to increase defense spending as \u201cvery good stuff.\u201d Starmer has pledged to boost military spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product by 2027 and to 3% by 2034.<\/p>\n

Like other NATO members, the U.K. has been reassessing its defense spending<\/a> since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine<\/a> in February 2022. <\/p>\n

European NATO members, led by the U.K. and France, have scrambled to coordinate their defense posture as Trump transforms American foreign policy<\/a>, seemingly sidelining Europe as he looks to end the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Last week the U.K. government said it would build new nuclear-powered attack submarines, prepare its army to fight a war in Europe and become \u201ca battle-ready, armor-clad nation.\u201d The plans represent the most sweeping changes to British defenses since the collapse of the Soviet Union more than three decades ago. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON (AP) \u2014 NATO members need to increase their air and missile defenses by 400% to counter the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[32,299,4179,807,2992,8617,2821,1477,56247,285,332,7661,15,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-170781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-general-news","11":"tag-keir-starmer","12":"tag-mark-rutte","13":"tag-military-and-defense","14":"tag-nato","15":"tag-netherlands","16":"tag-north-atlantic-treaty-organization","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-russia","19":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114654550673680029","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}