Mark Rutte hopes "that countries present clear, concrete, and credible plans to achieve that 5% goal" at the NATO summit starting tomorrow in Ankara. Everyone, including Spain. "And, of course, if there are still one or two allies to convince, we have ways to achieve it," added the Alliance's Secretary-General during the press conference before the start of the meeting taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday in Turkey.
The head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization also defended, as usual, the role of Donald Trump within NATO. In fact, he pointed out that the President of the United States is responsible for Spain, once again, having already raised Defense spending to 2% of GDP.
"If you look at last year, countries like Spain, Italy, Belgium, and Canada, that is, important economies, reached or are reaching the 2% target. Of course, it was because of Russia and Ukraine, but perhaps there was also a small part of the so-called 'Trump factor'," explained the Secretary-General.
"And I acknowledge it," Rutte continued, to those who many consider excessively praise the President of the United States. This Monday, the former NATO Secretary, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, stated in EL MUNDO that praising Trump "has its limits". But the former Prime Minister of the Netherlands does not seem to think so.
"Because Trump is the first since Dwight D. Eisenhower who is achieving this: ensuring that, although the United States has always been committed to NATO, that expectation Washington has held since Eisenhower is also met, that we spend on Defense as much as they do. And now, finally, we are reaching that point," he insisted.
With this increased spending, Rutte continued, NATO will be more balanced. Because "three, four, or five years ago, it was not sustainable." "It is not sustainable to ask a country with 350 million inhabitants, located eight hours' flight from here, to defend us against the Russians, while 600 million people living in this part of the NATO territory overly depend on the United States," he emphasized. An argument that could very well come from Trump's mouth. In fact, it has been the case on more than one occasion.
Beyond investment, which will obviously be one of the central topics and threatens to generate another strong confrontation after what happened last year in The Hague, Rutte also referred to Ukraine. The country's President, Volodymyr Zelensky, will indeed be in the Turkish city tomorrow, and before his arrival, the former Dutch official highlighted that the Ukrainian forces "are changing the dynamics on the battlefield, thanks to the bravery, dedication, and ingenuity of their armed forces." He added that the recent Russian attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine show "how desperate" Vladimir Putin is.