Mark Rutte urges allies to devote more funds, political energy to NATO alliance
Rutte was in Washington on Thursday for meetings with senior US officials, two months before he's due to chair a summit of US President Donald Trump and his NATO counterparts in the Netherlands.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/04/24/mark-rutte-urges-allies-to-devote-more-funds-political-energy-to-nato-alliance
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Rutte was in Washington on Thursday for meetings with senior US officials, two months before he's due to chair a summit of US President Donald Trump and his NATO counterparts in the Netherlands.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/04/24/mark-rutte-urges-allies-to-devote-more-funds-political-energy-to-nato-alliance
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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00:00NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has urged all 32 member nations to devote more funds,
00:06equipment and political energy to the world's largest military alliance.
00:11The move comes as European countries ramp up defense spending to meet the agreed-upon
00:152% threshold ahead of the upcoming NATO summit in The Hague in June.
00:20It also follows threats by U.S. President Donald Trump of walking away from NATO if Europe does
00:25not increase defense spending to at least 5% of GDP.
00:30It has to be considerably higher than this famous 2% which we wanted to achieve by 2024.
00:36We have seen the last couple of days countries like Belgium and Spain and Italy saying we will
00:41reach the 2% in time for the summit. So that's not 2024 but close. But clearly with 2% we cannot
00:47defend NATO territory. It has to be considerably higher. And I've said before it has to be
00:52considerably north of 3%.
00:54Rutte insists the increase in spending is to ensure NATO's safety and not just match the U.S.
01:00He added that the alliance must be fully competent and ready to weather any storm,
01:05particularly against one common threat.
01:07The comments came during a visit to Washington to meet with high-ranking U.S. defense officials,
01:23including Defense Secretary Pete Hexeth. The NATO boss was also questioned by reporters on the ongoing
01:30peace talks to end the war in Ukraine, but declined to give his opinion as to not hinder the process.
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