Our common safety is our shared responsibility. We are all trying to increase our defence spending," stressed Mark Rutte, NATO Secretary-General, at a press conference in Brussels after gathering with Andrzej Duda. The president of the Republic of Poland has requested that at the Hague Alliance summit a decision be made to immediately increase defence spending to 3 percent of GDP.
President Andrzej Duda visited NATO office today, where he met with Mark Rutte, Secretary General of the Alliance. Politicians talked about NATO's situation in the context of further US calls for a greater commitment from European members to finance the construction of a common defence potential. – The North Atlantic Partnership is the foundation of our alliance. president Trump made it clear that the United States and its individual commitment to NATO, and that we in Europe request to do more in the context of defence spending, in which Poland leads," said NATO's secretary-general.
Mark Rutte pointed out that in fresh months the alliance members' approach to defence spending has changed significantly. – Last year, defence spending in Europe and Canada increased by 20 percent. Allies work actively for what they can do more. Only last week Denmark and Britain made large plans. Germany and the Czech Republic are investing very powerfully – he calculated. He did not hide that he was looking forward to the improvement of the situation. “Our common safety is our shared responsibility. We are all trying to increase defence spending," he stressed. Rutte besides stated that many countries work for lasting and equitable peace in Ukraine. “We all want to see how Russian aggression ends and an agreement will be reached that will warrant lasting peace for sovereign Ukraine,” he said.
– If the full North Atlantic Alliance does not increase its defence spending, unfortunately, but possibly Vladimir Putin will be tempted to attack again due to the fact that there will be no adequate deterrence. The point is that the North Atlantic Alliance should be able to build adequate deterrent capacity not only for Russia, but for no 1 to attack the North Atlantic Alliance countries," said president Duda.
Head of the Armed Forces of Poland also recalled his initiativeHe presented to president Joe Biden during a visit to the White home for the 25th anniversary of Poland's presence in NATO. "I presented to the President, and at that time to the public media, the proposal that defence spending in NATO should be raised to at least 3 percent of the GDP of the associate States. At the time, this was a alternatively cool reception and this issue was not put at the NATO summit last year," Duda recalled. The president of Poland added that he believes it is absolutely advanced time to make hard decisions on this matter. "This is why present I have made a written request to the Secretary-General that at the forthcoming Hague Summit, this issue should be set up and that specified a decision should be taken within the North Atlantic Alliance that at least 3 percent of the GDP of the associate States of the Alliance, of course there can be more, if anyone wants, for defence and not for 2030 only immediately," said president Duda.
The submission of this proposal by the Head of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland argued the situation in Europe. "The situation is that we cannot wait until 2030. These must be decisions made efficiently, rapidly and we must carry out the task of restoring our military potential. due to the fact that you don't gotta explain it to anyone, we've talked about it dozens of times in different kinds of meetings, and those within the North Atlantic Alliance and in different formats. It turned out that Europe was not prepared at all for the threat of war," said Duda. He besides pointed out that Europe must reconstruct its defence possible and "this is present the main task not only of Poland but of NATO at all".
