NATO Secretary General: It’s NATO Not President Trump that Will Determine Whether Allies Have a ‘Credible Path’ To Meeting the Alliance’s New 5% Defense Spending Target

EXCERPT:

RUTTE: "Well, of course, we do this collectively, and we've got to do this because of the Russian threat. And we see what the Russians are doing in Ukraine, so we cannot continue on a path where, one, but Europeans are spending less than 2%, as they did only a couple of years ago, and two, where the Europeans were not spending the same as the U.S. was spending, and therefore having this overreliance on the United States. This is all changing. A credible path means that you reach the 5% target in 20235, not, let’s say, by just increasing your spending in 2034 and then doing everything in one year, but doing it in a credible way, like so many allies are already doing. Look at Germany, which will already reach the 3.5% in 2029 and brought a bunch of yesterday to parliament, which will in one year increase defense spending in Germany by tens of billions. This is staggering. We have not seen it in the last 60, 70 years."