BRUSSELS
NATO would not be able to defend itself in four or five years if it keeps the 2% level of defense spending, Secretary General Mark Rutte said Thursday.
“Partly” – also “maybe to a large extent” – “thanks” to US President Donald Trump during his first term in 2017, European NATO countries “have seen this upturn in spending,” the NATO chief told a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum at Davos.
“And he felt that basically, the US was getting a bad deal, and that Europe was basically funding its social model and its healthcare system etc., and its pension system by underfunding in defense,” he added.
Rutte also self-criticized, on behalf of the member countries, the alliance’s industry productions compared to Russia and China.
“We have to ramp up industry production because, at the moment, we are not doing it. But this is also a problem in the US. China is producing six times faster industrial output now than the US,” adding that the entire NATO was producing in a full year what Russia could produce in three months.
“So we are really in crisis mode here, he highlighted. … NATO collectively is not able to defend itself in four or five years if you stick to the 2%.”
Rutte also said that China’s products were of better quality than what they were 20 years ago, and much better than US products, or at least at the same level.
“And this is another problem, we do not innovate enough. We do not buy collectively enough. We are not getting into big contracts with industry,” Rutte also regretted.
The NATO chief also warned about the support for Ukraine.
“If this new Trump administration is willing to keep on supplying Ukraine from its defense industrial base, the bill will be paid by the Europeans… We have to be willing to do that because at this moment, they are paying more than the Europeans,” Rutte emphasized.
He also noted Trump was right about this being a “worldwide conflict.” “Yes, but still, Ukraine is closer to Europe than to the US,” he said.
