On Thursday 13 February, at the end of the NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warned that “President Trump will not allow anyone to turn Uncle Sam into Uncle Sucker”.
Mr Hegseth once again urged the Allies to spend more on defence, declaring that “we must make NATO great again” (see EUROPE 13578/11). Reiterating his country’s support for the Atlantic Alliance, Mr Hegseth acknowledged on his arrival that the world was “a safer - a freer place - when NATO is strong”.
“There is no replacement for hard power. We obviously need to increase spending, but we also need to expand our industrial capabilities on both sides of the Atlantic. Dollars, euros and pounds sterling must become real capabilities”, warned the Secretary of State for Defence. “The defence industrial base, not only in Europe but also in the United States, must have the capacity to create the systems and munitions needed to sustain combat”, he stressed on his arrival.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte also insisted on the need to spend “much more and faster”, but also to strengthen the defence industry. “We’re not producing enough”, he lamented. According to him, Russia produces in three months the munitions that the Allies produce in a year. “And this is simply untenable. We need to speed up production”, he insisted.
What’s more, noted the former Dutch Prime Minister, “to guarantee the credibility of our deterrent and our defence in the years to come, we need to adopt a war mentality. And we need industry to adapt to us”.
The Secretary General announced that the Allies had agreed on an updated action plan to rebuild a strong defence industry on both sides of the Atlantic, without giving further details. In July, at the Washington summit, the Allies undertook to strengthen this industry (see EUROPE 13451/3).
Launch of two new multinational initiatives. On the same day, NATO launched two new high-visibility multinational initiatives to strengthen the protection of its airspace, deterrence and defence.
Fifteen Allies (Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom) have pledged to develop more effective solutions for dealing with lower-altitude air threats (less than 150 metres).
These same Allies, along with the Czech Republic, have also launched a multinational initiative on passive air surveillance, such as noise detection, “essential for identifying incoming threats undetectable by active air surveillance capabilities such as radar and satellites”, according to the Alliance. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)