NATO needs to produce more weapons, the alliance chief said Thursday during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House.
“We are not doing enough, neither in the U.S. nor in Europe, and we are lagging behind the Russians and the Chinese,” Mark Rutte told Trump.
He pointed out that “Europeans buy four times more here than vice versa, which is good because you have a strong defense industry.”
“But we have to do more there to make sure we increase production and cut red tape,” he added.
He said that in Trump’s second term, Europeans are committing $800 billion to defense, and the Germans now have up to half a trillion more, as does the United Kingdom.
Others are committing much higher defense spending, he said.
“They are not there. We have to do more,” Rutte said.
The NATO chief added that he wants to work with Trump ahead of the June 24-25 summit at the World Forum in The Hague “to make sure that we will have a NATO that will be truly strengthened under your leadership, and we are getting there.”, AA writes.
