Reuters: Rutte calls on NATO to increase defence spending by 400 per cent

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Photo: Reuters

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has called on NATO member states to quadruple their spending on air and missile defence.

He will make the announcement during a speech in London, Reuters reports.

This initiative will be one of the priorities of the upcoming NATO summit in The Hague, which will take place in late June. Mark Rutte will also propose to increase the total defence spending of member states to 3.5% of GDP and to allocate an additional 1.5% for broader security needs. According to him, this will help to achieve the overall target of 5%, which was previously announced by former US President Donald Trump.

In his speech at the Chatham House think tank, Rutte will emphasise the need to strengthen airspace protection, particularly in light of the experience of the war in Ukraine.

«We see in Ukraine how Russia is using air attacks, so we must strengthen the shield that protects our skies», he said in his speech.

As a reminder, on the evening of 3 June, the current President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, met with the newly elected President Karol Nawrocki. One of the topics discussed was Ukraine's accession to NATO.