NATO chief Mark Rutte backed Trump’s idea to increase defense budgets and warned that a Russian victory in Ukraine would damage NATO’s credibility and increase costs.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte urged Ukraine’s Western allies to provide additional support to kyiv, saying he agreed with US President Donald Trump, who previously demanded that countries alliance members increase their defense budget from 2% to 5% of their GDP.
Speaking at a panel discussion at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Rutte said Europe’s defense budget averaged 2%, adding that “it must be much more.”
“I think Donald Trump is right that we are not spending enough,” said the NATO chief.
Mark Rutte also warned that a Russian victory over Ukraine would damage the credibility of the alliance and that defense costs would reach trillions of euros.
“If Ukraine loses, restoring deterrence to the rest of NATO will cost much more than we currently envisage in terms of increased spending and industrial production”declared Mr Rutte.
Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a minimum of 200,000 troops were needed to ensure Ukraine’s security in the event of a ceasefire with Russia.
“If (Russia) has an army of 1.5 million and we have less than twice as many, that means we need contingents with a very large number of soldiers.”added Mr. Zelenskyy.
Donald Trump, the US president who took office on Monday, has pledged to end the war in Ukraine, a promise he made during his election campaign. Although he did not specify his plan to achieve this, he threatened the Kremlin with sanctions on Wednesday if no agreement was reached quickly.
However, Europe is increasingly concerned that Trump will end the war on terms unfavorable to Ukraine.
“If we get a bad deal, it will mean we see the president of Russia courting the leaders of North Korea, Iran and China, and we cannot accept that. That would be a very big geopolitical error”said NATO chief Mark Rutte.
