We produce more and faster than in the last decades. But we can and we have to do more to guarantee the credibility of our mechanisms of deterrence and defense – said NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte after the meeting of the defense ministers of the Alliance. “We have to move to the mentality of the war time,” he added.
On Thursday in Brussels a meeting of heads of defense departments of NATO countries took place. Later at a press conference General Secretary of NATO Mark Rutte. He said that the Alliance would implement “dynamic plans” regarding the maintenance of deterrent.
– To guarantee that we are fully ready to make these plans also in the future, we need more military skills, and in this purpose we need significantly greater defense expenses. So there is no time to waste – he continued.
Read also: The world through the eyes of the USA. What the new head of the Pentagon said
Rutte: We have to do even more
At the same time, Rutte argued that “defense expenses” were constantly growing. – But we have to do even more, significantly more and we have to do it faster. Our today's discussion clearly shows that allies are aware of the needs of investing more (in defense – ed.). Several of them reported a large increase in expenses in today's meetings. I expect that many ministers will return from today's meetings with an even greater sense of urgency of this matter – NATO, Secretary General, said.
– We also discussed efforts to increase industrial production in the field of defense and expenses. Our industry must be able to produce what we are able to buy. In recent years, as part of the alliance, we are observing a significant increase in defense production – Mark Rutte pointed out.
– We produce more and faster than in the last decades. But we can and we have to do more to guarantee the credibility of our mechanisms of deterrence and defense. We must move to the mentality of the war time, the industry must also make such a shift – he emphasized.
Rutte: Putin is a strong and unpredictable negotiator
NATO Secretary General was asked whether Russian President Vladimir Putin certainly wanted peace, he replied that he was unpredictable. He added that he had the opportunity to meet him as the Prime Minister of the Netherlands and remembered him as a strong negotiator. “But ultimately, if we want to reach a peace agreement, we need it in these conversations, because he started this war,” Rutte said.
– We must make sure that the result of these conversations will be such that it will become clear to the whole world, in the Pacific countries such as China, but also in a country like North Korea, and even in the Middle East, in Iran, that agreement is strong that the West wins – emphasized NATO Secretary General.
Source of the main photo: Reuters