NATO must make ‘quantum leap’ of 400% in air, missile defence: Rutte

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte is set to call on member countries on Monday to increase their missile and air defences by 400 per cent.

NATO members need to increase their air and missile defences by 400 per cent to counter the threat from Russia, the head of the military alliance plans to say on Monday.

Secretary-General Mark Rutte will say during a visit to London that NATO must take a “quantum leap in our collective defence” to face growing instability and threats, according to extracts released by NATO before Rutte’s speech.

Rutte is due to meet U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer at 10 Downing St. ahead of a NATO summit in the Netherlands where the 32-nation alliance is likely to commit to a big hike in military spending.

Like other NATO members, the U.K. has been reassessing its defence spending since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Starmer has pledged to increase British defence spending to 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product by 2027 and to three per cent by 2034.

Rutte has proposed a target of 3.5 per cent of economic output on military spending and another 1.5 per cent on “defence-related expenditure” such as roads, bridges, airfields and sea ports. He said last week he is confident the alliance will agree to the target at its summit in The Hague on June 24-25.

At the moment, 22 of the 32 member countries meet or exceed NATO’s current two per cent target.

The new target would meet a demand by President Donald Trump that member states spend 5% of gross domestic product on defence. Trump has long questioned the value of NATO and complained that the U.S. provides security to European countries that don’t contribute enough.

Rutte plans to say in a speech at the Chatham House think tank in London that NATO needs thousands more armored vehicles and millions more artillery shells, as well as a 400 per cent increase in air and missile defence.