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NATO members must increase their 400% air and missile defenses to counter the threat of Russia, the chief of the military alliance plans to say it on Monday.
Secretary general Mark Rutte will say during a visit to London that NATO Must make a “quantum jump in our collective defense” to deal with instability and growing threats, according to the extracts released by NATO before the Rutte speech.
Rutte is expected to meet British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at 10, Downing St. Before a NATO summit in the Netherlands where the 32-country alliance should engage in a strong increase in military spending.
Like other NATO members, the United Kingdom has re-evaluated its defense expenses since the large-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022. Starmer has committed to increasing British defense expenses to 2.5% of the gross domestic product by 2027 and three% by 2034.
Rutte proposed an objective of 3.5% of economic production on military expenditure and 1.5% of “expenses linked to the defense” such as roads, bridges, aerodromes and sea ports. He said that last week, he was convinced that the Alliance would accept the target at its summit in The Hague from June 24 to 25.
Currently, 22 of the 32 member countries are reaching or exceeding the current NATO objective of two percent.
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The new objective would meet a request from President Donald Trump that the Member States would spend 5% of the gross domestic product in defense. Trump has long questioned NATO’s value and complained that the United States ensures the safety of European countries that do not contribute enough.
Rutte plans to say in a speech to the Catham House reflection group in London that NATO needs thousands of armored vehicles and millions of additional artillery shells, as well as an increase of 400% of air and anti -missile defense.
“We see in Ukraine how Russia offers terror from above, so we will strengthen the shield that protects our sky,” he plans to say.
“Pious wishes will not keep us safe. We cannot dream of danger. Hope is not a strategy. So NATO must become a stronger, fairer and more fatal alliance.”
European members of NATO, led by the United Kingdom and France, have scrambled to coordinate their defense posture while Trump transforms American foreign policy, apparently away from Europe while he seeks to end the war in Ukraine.
Last week, the British government said that it is building new nuclear propulsion attack submarines, would prepare its army to fight a war in Europe and became “a nation holds the plans have been the most radical changes to the British defenses since the collapse of the Soviet Union more than three decades.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press
