“Rutte criticized the idea of creating a “European NATO” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that the creation of a separate European defense alliance would require 8-10% of GDP and 15-20 years. Instead, he promised to deepen cooperation between NATO and the EU.”, — write on: unn.ua
“If you really want to build a European NATO, then forget about 2% of GDP (defense spending – ed.) – you will have to raise spending to 8-9 or 10%. You will have to build your own nuclear potential, and it will take 15-20 years “, he said during a speech in the European Parliament.
“At this time, the US spends more than 60% of all funds spent on the territory of NATO. This means that the other 31 countries spend less than 40%, including Canada. Therefore, it is an illusion that you can build a European NATO in the next 10-15 years,” the Secretary General emphasized.
Instead, Rutte drew attention to the importance of deepening cooperation between NATO and the EU. According to him, “an agreement has already been reached on the creation of a high-level coordination group between the organizations.”
“We agreed with Ursula (Ursula von der Leyen – ed.), if there is an issue that is not resolved in this committee, we will call each other and not hang up the phone until we agree, even if it takes two full weekends and we don’t we will be able to eat all this time,” NATO Secretary General insisted.
According to Rutte, such cooperation should be “successful”, since she and the head of the European Commission are “great friends”, and she, as a former defense minister of Germany, “understands these issues well”.
Let’s add
At the same time, the NATO Secretary General emphasized that “coordination between organizations should be simple and effective”: “More coordination, but with a light touch – no heavy structures with a bunch of protocols and committee meetings. Let’s make it as simple as possible.”
In addition, Rutte noted that peace in Ukraine can be long-lasting only when Ukraine conducts negotiations from a position of strength. For this, according to him, constant support and more weapons are needed, which will allow the country to defend itself better, the correspondent of Radio Svoboda reports.
Earlier, the head of the European Council, Antonio Costa, invited the leaders of the EU member states to an informal summit, which will be held on February 3 near Brussels. The main topic of the meeting is the strengthening of European defense.
The purpose of this summit will be “to prepare the basis for the decisions that the EU countries will have to make in the future, as well as to provide recommendations to the European Commission and the High Representative regarding the preparation of a “white paper” on the future of European defense.” Košta noted that he “aims to return to the topic of defense at the meeting of the European Council in June 2025.”
NATO countries will be able to spend up to 5% of GDP on defense only in 10 years – Ministry of Defense of Poland12.01.25, 12:21 • 48934 views