Russia may be ready to attack NATO within five years, and the leaders of the Western alliance are expected to agree to increase military spending to 5% of GDP this month to deter the threat. This was stated by the Secretary General of the Alliance, Mark Rutte, UNN reports with reference to The Guardian.
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Mark Rutte said in a speech in London on Monday that NATO needs a "quantum leap in our collective defense" that will include significant rearmament to deter an increasingly militarized Russia.
This will include a fivefold increase in air defense, thousands of additional tanks and millions of additional artillery shells to increase arsenals and ensure that NATO countries meet existing levels of Russian production.
Speaking at Chatham House after meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Rutte said, looking at the summit in The Hague this month: "I expect Allied leaders to agree to spend 5% of GDP on defense." Of these, 3.5% of GDP will be basic military spending.
"The danger will not disappear even after the end of the war in Ukraine," Rutte stressed, reflecting the belief that the Kremlin will not demilitarize even if it agrees to a ceasefire and, eventually, to peace with Kyiv.
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These remarks provoked an immediate reaction from Moscow. Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said that NATO "is demonstrating itself as an instrument of aggression and confrontation" with this new plan.
Western military planners believe that Russia will seek to maintain an active and experienced army of more than 600,000 people, as well as maintain defense spending at around 6.5% of the country's GDP, and will be able to threaten NATO's eastern flank in less than half a decade.
During his trip to the UK, Rutte visited Sheffield Forgemasters, a nationalized steel plant owned by the Ministry of Defense that manufactures complex components for nuclear submarines, before meeting with Starmer and then giving a speech.