Rutte officially proposed to raise the military spending of NATO countries to 5% of GDP

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has officially proposed raising the level of military spending by the countries of the military alliance to 5% of their gross domestic product (GDP). He stated this on June 5 at the end of the first day of the NATO Defense Ministers' summit in Brussels.

"I am quite confident that we will achieve this as a result. I will propose a general investment plan, according to which investments in defense will amount to 5% of GDP, 3.5% of GDP for basic defense spending. And also allocate an additional 1.5% for security—related expenses by 2032," Rutte said at a NHK press conference.

The Secretary General of the alliance also pointed out that nuclear deterrence remains the cornerstone of the Alliance's security. Rutte stressed that NATO will remain a nuclear alliance as long as nuclear weapons exist.

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On June 5, ABC newspaper reported that Spain remains the only NATO country to oppose the introduction of a defense spending target of 5% of GDP. As the newspaper noted, if Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez does not change his position, he may directly clash with US President Donald Trump, who is preparing to actively promote this initiative at the NATO summit in The Hague on June 24-26.

Prior to that, on June 3, Bloomberg reported on NATO's plans to increase ground-based air defense forces in Europe by five times. According to sources, by increasing the number of air defenses, the alliance seeks to fill its gap in air defense against the background of the alleged "Russian aggression."