NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has praised President Donald Trump’s efforts to push NATO allies toward increased defense spending amid efforts to stop the conflict in Ukraine.
For years, Trump has advocated for NATO allies to increase defense spending between 2% and 5% of their gross domestic product. He has also made clear that European countries need to take greater responsibility for their security on the continent.
“You’re starting to hear the British prime minister and others all committing to much higher defense spending,” Rutte told reporters Thursday at the White House. “We’re not there. We need to do more, but I want to work together with you . . . to make sure that we will have a NATO which is reinvigorated, under your leadership. And we are getting there.”
Rutte stated that “it is truly staggering what has happened in the past two weeks when you consider Trump 47.”
Rutte made his comments as Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission on March 4, presented a proposal for $841 billion to boost defense spending in European Union countries.
In February, British Premier Keir Starmer also pledged to increase his country’s defence spending from 2.3% to 2,5% of its gross domestic product. This is an increase over the current 2.3% that the U.K. spends and amounts to nearly $17 billion.
Rutte still emphasized that the U.S. as well as Europe needed to improve their defense industry base, but warned them they are falling behind Russia in terms of defense production.
According to Washington’s nonpartisan Peterson Institute for International Economics, by 2023, the U.S. will have spent $880 billion on its defense budget. The U.S. provides more than half of NATO’s funding, while the United Kingdom and France have each contributed between 4 and 8 percent in recent years.
NATO is composed of more than 30 nations and was originally formed in 1949 as a way to stop the Soviet Union from spreading.
In February, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth visited Brussels and encouraged NATO partners to increase their defense expenditures.
Hegseth added that “NATO must pursue these objectives as well.” Hegseth said that NATO is the greatest defense alliance ever, but for it to last in the long term, its partners will have to do more.
The negotiations for the end of the war in Ukraine coincided with pledges by European nations and their allies to increase defense spending.
In the context of a peaceful negotiation, nations such as France and Britain have suggested deploying troops to protect Ukraine from any future Russian aggression.