By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BRUSSELS/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – The head of NATO has told member states to prepare for war, describing the current security situation as “the worst in my lifetime.”
In his first major policy speech since taking charge of the military alliance, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte suggested in Brussels, Belgium, that citizens in Europe and North America should “shift to a wartime mindset.”
“Our deterrence is good – for now. But it’s tomorrow I’m worried about. We are not ready for what is coming our way in four to five years,” Rutte warned.
“Russia, China, but also North Korea and Iran, are hard at work to try to weaken North America and Europe. To chip away at our freedom. They want to reshape the global order. Not to create a fairer one, but to secure their own spheres of influence,” Rutte stressed.
”China is substantially building up its forces, including its nuclear weapons – with no transparency and no limitations. From 200 warheads in 2020, China is expected to have more than 1,000 nuclear weapons by 2030,” he stressed.
“Its space-launch investments are skyrocketing. China is bullying Taiwan and pursuing access to our critical infrastructure in ways that could cripple our societies.”
Closer to NATO headquarters in Brussels, “it takes one day to drive to Ukraine. One day. That’s how close the Russian bombs are falling. It’s how close the Iranian drones are flying. And not very much further, the North Korean soldiers are fighting,” he added about Russia’s war against Ukraine.
1 MILLION CASUALTIES
“Every day, this war causes more devastation and death. Every week, there are over 10.000 killed or wounded on all sides in Ukraine,” adding that there have been “over 1 million casualties” on both sides since February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukrainian territory.
He said that Russian President Vladimir “Putin is trying to wipe Ukraine off the map. He is trying to fundamentally change the security architecture that has kept Europe safe for decades. And he is trying to crush our freedom and way of life.”
Rutte suggested that although “his pattern of aggression is not new,” for too long, the 32 NATO member states “did not act.”
He referred to Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008, where it still occupied about 20 percent of the country’s internationally recognized territory, as well as Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
“And many did not want to believe he would launch an all-out war on Ukraine in February 2022.” Therefore, he said, members should “turbocharge” their defense spending.
NATO members have pledged to spend at least two percent of the value of their economies – measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annually by 2024. However, Rutte said “a lot more” would be needed “as danger moves towards us at full speed.”
The former longtime Dutch prime minister did not address criticism that it took his government some 14 years to meet the NATO minimum criteria of spending two percent of GDP on defense.
CRITICAL TIME
Yet Rutte’s comments came at a critical time, ahead of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s arrival at the White House on January 20.
Trump had threatened to reconsider Article Five, which states that an attack on one member state is an attack on all if member states continue to invest less than two percent of GDP in defense.
“On average, European countries easily spend up to a quarter of their national income on pensions, health and social security systems. We need a small fraction of that money to make our defenses much stronger and to preserve our way of life,” Rutte said.
He spoke at an event in Brussels of Carnegie Europe, part of the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a nonpartisan international affairs think tank
“Prioritizing defense requires political leadership. It can be tough and risky in the short term. But it’s absolutely essential in the long term,” Rutte told his audience.
“Some people will tell you otherwise. They think strong defense is not the way to peace. Well, they are wrong. Because without a strong defense, there is no lasting security. And without security, there is no freedom for our children and grandchildren. No schools, no hospitals, no businesses. There is nothing.
Those who lived through the Second World War know this. And our Ukrainian friends are living it every day,” he added.
Rutte, 57, noted that “Russia’s economy is on a war footing” as in 2025, “the total military spending will be 7 to 8 percent of GDP, if not more. That’s a third of Russia’s state budget – and the highest level since the Cold War.”
DEFENSE INDUSTRY
Rutte noticed that Russia’s defense industry produces vast numbers of tanks, armored vehicles, and ammunition. “What Russia lacks in quality, it makes up for in quantity – with the help of China, Iran, and North Korea.”
As a broader war seemed imminent, “We have more forces at higher readiness. Larger and more frequent military exercises,” he said.
“More troops and hardware on our eastern flank. And, with Finland and Sweden, more NATO Allies,” Rutte explained.
Several European governments have already advised citizens to prepare a backpack with emergency supplies for several days, including water, food, and batteries for flashlights, radio sets, and mobile phones.
This week, banks in the Netherlands, one of Europe’s leading tech-savvy, services-providing nations, to keep more cash at home amid concerns about possible Russian strikes on key infrastructure.
(With additional reporting by the Worthy News Europe Bureau in Budapest)
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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