On Thursday 12 December, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that the Allies needed to spend more on defence, not to please Donald Trump, who has threatened to leave the Alliance if the Allies “don’t pay their bills”, but because their security is at stake.
“I don’t want us to spend more because Trump wants us to, but because our deterrence is at stake, our defence is at stake. Our collective defence is not what it should be”, explained Mr Rutte at a conference organised by Carnegie Europe in Brussels.
“We are not at war. But we are certainly not at peace either”, warned the General Secretary. According to him, “our deterrence is good - for now. But it’s tomorrow I’m worried about. We are not ready for what is coming our way in four to five years”.
Pointing out that Russia will be spending “7%, 8%, perhaps even more” of its GDP on defence next year, and that China was “substantially building up its forces, including its nuclear weapons – with no transparency and no limitations”, the Secretary-General called on the Allies to do more.
“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”, stressed Mr Rutte, pointing out that during the Cold War, Europeans spent far more than 3% of their GDP on defence. However, he refused to give a new percentage of GDP to be devoted to defence. He did explain, however, that if the Allies spent more, but not better, then we would have to spend at least 4%.
“I know that spending more on defence means spending less on other priorities. But it is only a little less. On average, European countries easily spend up to a quarter of their national income on pensions, health and social security systems. We need a small fraction of that money to make our defences much stronger, and to preserve our way of life”, he explained, adding that prioritising defence requires political leadership.
And he warned that: “If we don’t spend more together now to prevent war, we will pay a much, much, much higher price later to fight it. Not billions, but trillions of euros”.
Investing in the defence industry. According to the Secretary General, if the Allies want to spend less than 4% of their GDP on defence, they will have to innovate and make joint purchases. “We need to back up this (new) figure by clearly specifying the type of capabilities we need”, he stressed, citing missile defence, long-range weapons and logistics.
The Secretary General also called for investment in the defence industry, particularly in Europe. “Our industry is too small, too fragmented and too slow”, he lamented.
Mr Rutte called on governments to give industries “the big orders and long-term contracts they need to rapidly produce more and better capabilities”, including modern capabilities. In his view, governments must also stop creating barriers between themselves and between industries, banks and pension funds. He also called on industry to invest, explaining that there was money on the table.
Asked about the European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP), Mr Rutte said that he understood that Europeans wanted European money to be spent as much as possible in Europe, but that transatlantic cooperation should not be damaged.
“We don’t need any additional barriers”, he added.
The EDIP programme is still under discussion between EU Member States and is not expected to be agreed before the end of the year. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)