NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stated yesterday in The Hague that the 32 member states at this week’s alliance summit will make “bold decisions,” including the adoption of a new investment plan that will increase defense spending to five percent of gross domestic product.
At a press conference ahead of the NATO summit, Rutte said that all alliance members this year will meet the goal of allocating two percent of GDP for defense, although at the beginning of 2025 “seven to eight allies” had not yet reached that level.
“So, we have made key progress in the last five to six months. The new defense investment plan, which the allies will agree on at the summit in The Hague, introduces a new standard: we will invest five percent of GDP in defense. This is a quantum leap that is ambitious, historic, and fundamental for securing our future,” said Rutte.
He stated that the summit in The Hague will be held “at a truly historic moment, with significant and growing security challenges” for NATO.
“As the world becomes increasingly dangerous, the leaders of allied countries will make bold decisions to strengthen our collective defense, which will make NATO a stronger, fairer, and more lethal alliance,” said Rutte.
Rutte said that the security situation in the world has “dramatically changed” in the past few years, ever since the Russian occupation of Crimea in 2014, and especially since 2022 when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
He added that alliance members therefore need to reach a significantly higher level of defense spending than the current one so that all are able to defend their territory in the event of an attack.
“At the same time, Russia is working together with North Korea, China, Iran. China is also rapidly strengthening its armed forces to a level never seen before. The security situation has dramatically changed and that is why this summit is important – the allies must be capable of defense. If that moment comes, we must stand together, united, not only in spirit but also in practice,” said Rutte when asked whether citizens of the Western Balkans have reason to be concerned.
Rutte also said that “five out of eight Western Balkan countries are in NATO,” that there is a Kosovo Force (KFOR) mission in Kosovo, and that the alliance closely cooperates with the EUFOR mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
“I am in permanent dialogue with the President of Serbia (Aleksandar Vucic), we have known each other for a long time, we are close friends, but we don’t always agree. And it is important to continue that conversation,” said Rutte, BHRT writes.
