Munich, Germany – February 15: Secretary General NATO Mark Rutte walks in front of the main place at the 61st. Security Conference in Munich on February 15, 2025 in Munich, Germany. The leaders of international defense and security from around the world are gathering at the conference on February 14-16. (Photo of Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Saturday gave blunt advice to European members of the Military Alliance in the face of a more confrontational USA: Stop complaining and current solutions.
“Go to the debate without complaining … But inventing specific ideas,” said Security Munich conference.
The head of NATO also confirmed that the alliance will achieve a new agreement on the purposes of defense expenditure when the members meet in June at the Hague summit in the Netherlands.
“It will be much more than 2%,” Rutte said, without providing more detailed details.
Speaking on the panel next to Rutte, US senator Lindsey Graham said that Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his offensive against Ukraine, made more than any NATO member to revive the increase in military expenditure.
“Putin did more to help NATO than us,” he said, adding that the Russian leader made a “serious incorrect calculation.”
The Drurny problem of expenditure on NATO defense is a key part of the growing division and discomfort between the USA and Europe.
Trump's relations with the Western Military Alliance were covered during his first presidency, and the republican leader often a lift of NATO Member States for not observing through Cele 2014 to spend at least 2% of GDP to defend each year.
Before the second term, Trump signaled that the debate on military expenses-and the conviction of Trump, that NATO members are excessively religious in the US for their own security-would turn to the program, stating that 32 NATO member states should contribute. Even more towards defense.
“I think that NATO should have 5% (their GDP as the purpose of NATO's contribution)”, ” He said in January. “Everyone can afford it, but they should be 5%, not 2%,” he said at a press conference where He also refused to exclude the use of military force to take over the Panama Canal or Greenland – territory belonging to a member of NATO Denmark.
There was a wide increase in defense expenditure among NATO members, because Trump was the last in power. In 2018, at the peak of the irritation of the White House leader with a military block, only six Member States reached 2% of GDP.
Whereas, NATO data estimates that 23 members have reached 2% In 2024, while some crossed this threshold – such as Poland, Estonia, the USA, Latvia and Greece – the main economic rights, including Canada, Spain and Italy, belong to the delay below the threshold of the contribution.
No NATO member reached 5% of the target suggested by Trump, including Washington under the administration of his predecessor Joe Biden.