The time has come for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to take on a wartime mindset and boost spending levels to those seen during the Cold War era, according to the alliance’s secretary-general, Mark Rutte.
Speaking at an event hosted by Carnegie Europe in Brussels, Belgium, on Dec. 12, Rutte said Russia is already on a wartime footing, with military spending expected to account for up to 8 percent of Russia’s GDP and a third of its state budget in 2025. Rutte further asserted Russia is continuing to turn out large numbers of tanks, armored vehicles, and ammunition, with support from China, Iran, and North Korea.
“This all points in one clear direction: Russia is preparing for long-term confrontation with Ukraine and with us,” he said.
To counter this trend from Russia, Rutte said the alliance must ramp up its own defense spending.
The contributions of the various alliance member nations have been a point of contention in recent years. Throughout his first term in office and during his 2024 campaign, President-elect Donald Trump has said that the United States is bearing the brunt of the alliance’s defense spending while other nations are falling short of their military spending obligations.
Some members of the alliance have boosted their military spending in recent years, particularly amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, but Rutte said more is needed.
“It is true that we spend more on defense now than we did a decade ago,” he said. “But we are still spending far less than during the Cold War, even though the threats to our freedom and security are just as big—if not bigger.”
Rutte said European nations contributed more than 3 percent of their GDP to military spending during the Cold War era. The current NATO spending target is 2 percent of each member nation’s GDP.
“I can tell you, we are going to need a lot more than 2 percent,” Rutte said.
The NATO official said he couldn’t offer a firm figure for how much the alliance members should spend on their militaries, stating the member nations need more time to confer on this issue.
Currently, Poland contributes the greatest percentage of its GDP to military spending of any of the NATO member nations, spending about 4.1 percent. Its military spending has more than doubled over the past decade, according to NATO figures.
Estonia and the United States each contribute about 3.4 percent of their GDP to military spending, while Latvia and Greece each spend about 3.1 percent of their GDP on their militaries.
Most of the remaining NATO members are at or about the 2 percent alliance target. Still, Croatia, Portugal, Italy, Canada, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia, and Spain all fall below the NATO spending target.
Except for the United States, Greece, and the United Kingdom, no NATO members had met the 2 percent percent spending target a decade ago.
In addition to boosting spending, Rutte said the alliance generally needs to be more aggressive.
“We can prevent the next big war on NATO territory and preserve our way of life—this requires us all to be faster and fiercer,” he said. “It is time to shift to a wartime mindset.”
While Trump routinely criticized the NATO members for not spending more, he’s also signaled an interest in de-escalating with Russia, particularly in the ongoing war in Ukraine. He has signaled he would pursue negotiations to quickly end the war, even at times saying he could achieve a deal within 24 hours of taking office.
Rutte said NATO must consider who benefits most from a peace deal and whether overly favorable terms for Russia will incentivize other global actors, such as China and Iran, to become more aggressive.
