Nato Chief Says Its Members Must Move To ‘Wartime Mindset’ As Putin Increases Threats To West

Nato’s chief has urged the alliance’s members to adopt a “wartime mindset” over the growing threat from Russia in the coming years.

The secretary general, Mark Rutte, said all of Nato’s members should consider increasing defence spending above the current target of 2% of GDP.

Speaking in Brussels, he said: “Russia is preparing for long-term confrontation, with Ukraine and with us.

“We are not ready for what is coming our way in four to five years. It is time to shift to a wartime mindset and turbocharge our defence production and defence spending.”

Russian president Vladimir Putin has long blamed Nato’s supposed expansion to the east for pushing him chose to invade Ukraine in 2022, because he said it made Moscow feel threatened.

Ukraine wants to join Nato, but might be pressured to drop that bid in order to secure a peace deal with Russia when president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House next month.

Rutte said Nato members spent more than 3% of their GDP on defence during the Cold War, when tensions between the US and Russia were high.

He also said Nato need to be aware of China’s ambitions, especially when it comes to its intentions towards Taiwan.

His comments will be seen as an attempt to pre-empt Trump, who is expected to repeat his calls for all Nato member states to increase their defence spending.

In 2018, during his last term in office, Trump pushed for Nato allies to double their military funding target to 4% of GDP.

At the moment, many member states spend less than the 2% on defence. 

Around 23 of the 32 members are expected to reach the target amount by the end of the year.

The UK currently spends just over 2%, but defence secretary John Healey reiterated last week that the UK is “totally committed to increasing defence spending to 2.5% of GDP”.

He said 2.5% of GDP on defence would be “a level we haven’t seen in this country since 2010, when Labour was last in government”.

Labour has not put clear timeline on that promise, though.

Less than a week after he was elected in July, PM Keir Starmer also said the government have a “cast iron” commitment” to hiking defence spending.

He said: “At a time when we face multiple threats at home and abroad, we must make sure we are ready to defend ourselves.”

Yet he prefaced that this increase in defence would have to be “within our fiscal rules” and that a “strategic review needs to come first”.

In response to Rutte’s comments, a spokesman for Keir Starmer said: “We’ve said we’ll set out a pathway to 2.5% in the spring and we hope other allies will follow suit in due course.”