On the eve of the NATO summit in Ankara, the alliance’s secretary-general, Mark Rutte, said European members and Canada are on track to bring their defence spending into line with that of the United States, which has long criticised Europe’s lack of military spending and perceived “free riding”.
Speaking in the Turkish capital just ahead of the two-day NATO gathering on July 7-8, Rutte also said the alliance “must continue to ensure Ukraine gets what it needs” after another devastating Russian attack in and around Kyiv on July 6, which killed at least 21 people.
The Ankara summit is meant to take stock of how the 32 allies are doing in terms of meeting the target, set in the Hague last year, of spending 5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2035.
With some countries barely reaching the previous goal of 2 per cent this year, the United States has pushed European countries to show credible plans on how they can reach the goal within a decade.
‘One-Sided Path’
Just last week, US President Donald Trump, who has long been sceptical of the alliance, questioned NATO again in a social media post, writing that it is “ridiculous for the USA to continue along this one-sided path when the relationship is not reciprocal.”
He also included a graph showing that Washington spends a lot more on its military than any single European ally.
It follows similar criticism voiced by the US Defence Secretary Peter Hegseth when he addressed his NATO counterparts in Brussels last month, accusing some of “free riding” and slamming others for not allowing their air bases to be used by US jets in the American air campaign against Iran earlier this year.
At that meeting, Hegseth also promised a six-month US review of its European troop posture in which he said, “Some countries will fail and others will pass with flying colours”, implying that some of the close to 80,000 US troops stationed in Europe could be withdrawn from lower-spending nations.
Rutte, who has sought to maintain close ties with Trump in an effort to preserve alliance unity, said that European allies and Canada “already are investing around 4 per cent of their GDP in defence and security”, adding that this had generated $258 billion in extra defence investment in the last two years.
This trend, Rutte noted, would mean that the other 31 members were now on “a trajectory to equalise their defence spending with the United States”.
The former Dutch prime minister also praised Trump, saying he was the first US president since Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s to achieve “this equalisation”.
Ukraine Seeking More Air Defenses
Ukraine is also expected to be high on the NATO agenda as the leaders assemble.
After the latest Russian attacks on July 6, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who will attend parts of the summit, urged member states in a social media post to provide Kyiv with more air defences, notably Patriot interceptor missiles.
While calling on allies to step up, Rutte acknowledged there was little the West could do immediately to bolster Ukraine’s air defences.
“From a practical perspective there is a limit on interceptors on NATO territory and that is why we need to produce more,” he said. “We are working from every angle; everyone is involved in this effort.”
With few concrete air defence deliverables coming to Ukraine anytime soon, there is hope that Kyiv might secure some sort of licensing deal in Ankara that would allow for domestic production.
Separately, NATO leaders are also expected to endorse a summit communique that pledges 70 billion euros ($80 billion) for Ukraine in bilateral and institutional support for both this year and next.
