NATO Chief Calls for Cold War-Level Military Spending

Mark Rutte said the alliance needs to adopt a 'wartime mindset' and suggested cutting spending on pensions and healthcare

On Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte called for the alliance to significantly increase military spending up to Cold War levels and adopt a “wartime mindset.”

“It is true that we spend more on defense now than we did a decade ago.
But we are still spending far less than during the Cold War. Even though the threats to our freedom and security are just as big – if not bigger,” Rutte said in a speech in Brussels. “During the Cold War, Europeans spent far more than 3% of their GDP on defense.”

Rutte, a former Dutch prime minister, suggested Europe could increase military spending by making cuts from pensions and health services.

“I know spending more on defense means spending less on other priorities.  But it is only a little less,” Rutte said. “On average, European countries easily spend up to a quarter of their national income on pensions, health and social security systems. We need a small fraction of that money to make our defenses much stronger and to preserve our way of life.”

Rutte said Europeans should tell their “banks and pension funds it is simply unacceptable that they refuse to invest in the defense industry. Defense is not in the same category as illicit drugs and pornography.”

The NATO chief framed his demand for an increase in military spending as a way to prevent war and claimed Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea are “hard at work to try to weaken North America and Europe.”

Rutte, who replaced Jens Stoltenberg as the head of NATO in October, is also determined to continue the proxy war in Ukraine, saying recently that there should be less talk of peace and more focus on shipping weapons into the conflict.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.