Security costs: Rutte mentioned how NATO members can boost their defense spending.

All members of the North Atlantic Alliance, whether they like it or not, will have to increase their defense spending to 3% of GDP. In fact, it may even be much higher, as this is the price for their own security – and something else will have to be sacrificed for it.

This was stated by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in an interview with Politico. He reminded that U.S. President Donald Trump demanded that NATO members spend at least 5% of their GDP on defense.

Rutte also recalled that nearly 10 years ago, Alliance members agreed to allocate 2% of GDP for defense. However, the current situation shows that such expenditures are insufficient. The threat from the Russian regime has not disappeared, and there is a need to rearm armies, stockpile supplies, and provide weapons and ammunition to Ukraine.

The NATO Secretary General did not rule out that the governments of Alliance countries may soon have to make difficult decisions. For instance, they might need to significantly cut various social programs and redirect the freed-up funds to defense needs. NATO armies are lacking air defense systems, long-range missiles, and even tanks for the forces currently deployed. This is far more critical than social assistance programs.

"We haven't paid enough over the last 40 years, especially after the fall of the Berlin Wall... The U.S. is rightly asking for a rebalancing of this. It makes sense," Rutte concluded.

Notably, during his speech at the Munich Conference, Rutte emphasized that Russia, despite three years of war, is now producing more weapons and ammunition per year than all NATO member countries combined. NATO must prevent a new Russian attack on Ukraine, the Secretary General stated.

Denmark's intelligence recently published a report indicating that the Russian regime, despite the war in Ukraine, is actively rearming and preparing for a new conflict. If NATO does not begin to rearm and bolster its forces now, in a few years the Alliance will have to fight the Kremlin, which will be ready for a new invasion, this time into Europe.

It is noteworthy that media reports suggest that Western countries must continue to support Ukraine at all costs, as failing to do so will soon result in a larger and more terrifying war. Putin is already waging an undeclared war against Western countries – incidents with cables in the Baltic, the British submarine stopping a Russian spy ship, and other similar incidents are effectively the first battles of this undeclared war.