According to Rutte, NATO countries should spend more on defense, creating more and better defense capabilities.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that NATO countries must "shift to wartime thinking" and prepare for war, Chroniclers reports, citing Voice of America.
“To prevent war, we need to prepare for it. It is time to move to wartime thinking, and that means we need to make our defenses even stronger, spending more on defense, creating more and better defense capabilities,” he said.
He also said that NATO should support Ukraine more to change the trajectory of the war.
“We need to support Ukraine more to change the trajectory of the war, we all want it to end, but above all we want the peace to last,” he said.
In addition, Rutte called his priority in office “ensuring that we do everything necessary and that we are proactive on Ukraine and the partnership, fully and quickly. And for this I count on your continued participation and support.”
According to the Secretary General, Russia's threatening actions against European countries are gaining momentum and the alliance must protect its people.
“We must continue to do everything we can together to protect all our people. Our future security is at risk, Russia’s war against Ukraine continues, Russia’s hostile actions against our own countries are gaining momentum through cyberattacks, assassinations, acts of sabotage, etc. We used to call this hybrid actions, but these are destabilizing actions and campaigns,” he added.