NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned that Russia could launch an attack on the bloc within five years. He called on members to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP.
Speaking at the British Chatham House think tank, Rutte told the audience, “Russia could be ready to use military force against NATO within five years. Five years. Let’s not kid ourselves, we are all on the Eastern flank now.” He continued, “There is no longer East or West – there is just NATO.”
Rutte argued that to combat the supposed threat from Russia, NATO states must boost military spending to 5% of their GDP, adding “3.5% will be invested in our core military requirements. While the rest will go towards defence and security-related investments, including infrastructure and building industrial capacity.” He went on to say that “5% is not some figure plucked from the air, it is grounded in hard facts.”
President Donald Trump has also called for NATO to increase its minimum defense spending level to 5% of GDP. The current requirement is 2%, and only 23 of 32 members meet that threshold.
Spain and Italy will hit the minimum level for the first time this year, while Canada is not expected to spend more than 2% of its GDP on defense until 2027.
US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker restated that demand last week. “We are currently negotiating within the North Atlantic Council the timelines and what’s included in the 5%, both from a core defense standpoint and also defense-related and security-related spending,” he said Wednesday. He added that member states must rapidly ramp up spending to reach that goal.
According to NATO statistics, in 2024, only Poland spent over 4% of GDP on its military. Four countries, including the US, spend over 3% on defense. For the US, this would mean spending $1.45 trillion annually on the war budget.
“But let me be clear on this, we cannot have another Wales pledge style where a lot of allies don’t meet their commitments until year 10 or year 11,” he said. “We are asking all allies to increase their budgets as far as they can and as quickly as they can, understanding that this is not the United States setting this timeline, it is our adversaries.”
Not all European nations are on board with Rutte’s demand. French President Emmanuel Macron has said Paris could boost spending to 3.5% of GDP but would not agree to five. A British aide said Rutte’s proposal was “unrealistic.”
Rutte said the specifics of the new spending plan are “classified,” but some details he shared suggest it will be a major boon to some arms makers. “America’s Allies will procure at least 700 F-35 fighter jets in total,” NATO’s secretary general explained. Lockheed Martin produces the warplane.
