U.S. president Donald Trump demanded that members of the Alliance devote 5% of their GDP, which is simply a dramatic increase in relation to the 2% that the Alliance agreed over a decade ago, but which are now seen to be besides low to deal with the threat posed by Russia and the request for reinforcement, while sending arms to Ukraine. The future mark should be agreed at the June summit of NATO leaders in The Hague.
"In the next fewer months, we will accomplish convergence" on the budgetary objective, said Rutte, adding that in order to increase spending "we will gotta put defence ahead of another things." This is simply a mention to governments that must make hard decisions on military spending on popular welfare programmes.
The United States is asking for balance
The Alliance sets fresh capacity targets that will find where additional money should be channelled. Rutte said it was already clear that there were no air defence systems, long-range missiles and tanks to keep the army.
— We haven't paid adequate for the last 40 years, especially since the fall of the Berlin Wall," Rutte said about defence spending in Europe and Canada. “ The United States is right to ask for balance in this regard. It's completely logical," he added.
Rutte besides stressed that Washington remains committed to NATO, despite fresh U.S. Secretary of defence comments by Pete Hegseth, that European allies “cannot presume that America's presence will last forever”.
The United States produces more than 50% of NATO's GDP, so the alliance is “mostly an American organization,” he said. Rutte added that there is simply a "clear commitment to NATO" from the United States.
The NATO chief besides stressed that "everything is on the table" in all peace talks aimed at ending the fighting in Ukraine. There is confusion about this due to the fact that both Trump and Hegseth excluded Ukraine's membership of NATO and said that Kiev would not be able to recover the full territory occupied by Russia — although Hegseth has since tried to retreat from any of these comments.
— We gotta end it this way... Putin said, "I don't think it'll be a bad deal."
