Europe ‘will spend more’ on defence, Nato head suggests

Europe “will spend more” on defence, the head of Nato has suggested, after he warned that “it is time to shift to a wartime mindset”.

Mark Rutte, the organisation’s secretary general, told the BBC that US president-elect Donald Trump was “right” that there should be more spending on defence.

Mr Trump has been critical in the past of European nations relying on US military protection while not spending enough on their own defence.

Speaking to the BBC on Thursday, Mr Rutte said: “My plea here is, if you have children, grandchildren, if you think our way of life should be preserved: democracy, our values, then we have to prioritise defence.”

Asked whether he was worried president-elect Trump could turn his back on the international alliance if Europe does not up its defence spending, Mr Rutte said: “We will spend more”.

He later added: “I don’t want to spend more because of Donald Trump. He’s right that we have to spend more absolutely, he was right, he’s still right.”

Earlier on Thursday Mr Rutte had warned that Russian president Vladimir Putin wants to “wipe Ukraine off the map”.

In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels, he told security experts “it is time to shift to a wartime mindset”.

Nato members are meant to spend at least 2% of their gross domestic product on defence, but Mr Rutte suggested that more money would be needed.

The i newspaper quoted former defence secretary Ben Wallace as saying that it would take 3% for UK armed forces to be “match fit”.

The Government has pledged to set out “a path” to spending 2.5% of GDP on defence, and Downing Street suggested on Thursday that there could be more information in the coming months.

A Number 10 spokesman said: “We will be setting out a pathway to 2.5% in the Spring, the UK is the third largest defence spender in Nato after the US and Germany.

“And our commitment and support for Nato is crystal clear.”

Earlier this month, Foreign Secretary David Lammy urged European Nato members to “get serious” about defence spending.

Speaking at a meeting of Nato’s foreign ministers in Brussels, he said: “We’re living in very dangerous times, and as we look across the world, with war here on our continent in Europe, with the tremendous aggression that we’re seeing across the Middle East, with the hand of Iran so present in the Middle East and with this rising conflict in Sudan and now in Syria, there is one country whose hand is in so much of it, and that is Russia.”

Mr Lammy added: “And that is why, as we meet here discussing these important issues, it’s hugely important that we step up defence spending, across Nato allies particularly.

“In the United Kingdom, we are at 2.3%, heading to 2.5% as soon as we can get there, and we urge all allies across the Nato family to get serious about defence spending.”