NATO prepares for Ankara summit and increased allied defense spending – Rutte

NATO countries are already investing tens of billions of euros in strengthening their defense capabilities and are preparing for further increases in security spending ahead of the Alliance's summit in Ankara this July. This was stated by NATO Secretary General Marco Rutte during a press conference after the meeting of NATO foreign ministers, UNN reports.

According to him, a meeting of NATO defense ministers will be held tomorrow at NATO headquarters, where they will discuss preparations for the summit in Turkey and the implementation of decisions made at last year's summit in The Hague.

Rutte reminded that it was then that the allies agreed to make NATO stronger and fairer, in particular by increasing defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035 and significantly strengthening the defense industry.

The Secretary General emphasized that investments in defense are already growing by tens of billions of euros. As an example, he cited Germany, which plans to spend 152 billion euros on defense by 2029 – more than twice as much as in 2021.

According to Rutte, the ministers' meeting will also discuss further plans of the allies to increase defense spending and form a realistic path to the common goal of the Alliance. At the same time, he emphasized that the increase in investments must be accompanied by the availability of the necessary defense capabilities and the possibility of purchasing them.

Recall

US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker stated that he expects more announcements of commitments within the PURL initiative to supply American weapons to Ukraine. Allies have committed to purchasing more than $4.5 billion worth of weapons.