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Rutte hinted at the need for NATO governments to make difficult decisions on military spending
The NATO Secretary General considers the US demands reasonable, as Europe and Canada "have not paid enough over the past 40 years."
NATO members will have to increase their defense spending by significantly more than 3% of GDP, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in an interview with POLITICO.
US President Donald Trump has demanded that allies allocate 5% of their GDP to defense. While more than 10 years ago the defense alliance agreed on 2%. But this is now considered too low an indicator to combat the threat from Russia, the need for rearmament and the simultaneous sending of weapons to Ukraine.
Rutte hinted at the need for governments to make difficult decisions about military spending instead of popular social welfare programs.
According to the NATO Secretary General, there is currently a shortage of air defense systems, long-range missiles, and tanks to support the armies.
"We haven't paid enough in the last 40 years, especially since the fall of the Berlin Wall... The US is rightly asking for a rebalancing of this. It's logical," Rutte said of European and Canadian defense spending.
Rutte also stressed that Washington remains committed to NATO, despite recent statements by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that European allies "cannot assume that America's presence will last forever."
The US accounts for over 50% of NATO's GDP, so the alliance is "primarily an American organization," Rutte added.
