The Royal Danish Navy frigate Triton passes an iceberg around Greenland in 2023. Photo: NATO
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte says Europe’s defence industry is playing catch-up to Russia in a dangerous new age of global competition.
His concerns were spelt out during a recent visit to Slovakia to meet with President Peter Pellegrini, talk to NATO troops and spoke to university students in the capital.
Rutte briefed the university students about the threat posed by Russia which contained references to the Cold War.
PART ONE: Cold War 2.0 on the cards
“We have all seen what Russia is capable of. Russia’s economy is now on a war footing. It is rebuilding its forces much faster than expected and it teamed up with China, North Korea and Iran,” he pointed out.
“Even when the war in Ukraine ends, (the danger) will not disappear. Security is under threat here in Europe and around the world. We must be prepared for intense global competition, Rutte says.
“We are spending more and doing more in NATO today but we are nowhere near where we need to be. We need rapid and we need radical change,” the former Netherlands PM says.
He admits the high cost of spending on defence industries is high but says supply is a bigger issue.
“The problem is speed. The problem is that many defence companies have to put in place more shifts and more production lines. They are not doing that,” he says
“They are asking for 10-year contracts in democracies (election cycle to election cycle) so I’m telling these big industrial companies ‘you know that the money is there? Start investing!’.”
He points to the likes of Poland, Romania, Estonia and Slovakia are buying defence equipment from the likes of South Kore and Israel.
“This is a problem; not only for the European part of NATO but for the US because the US had over 80 big defensive industrial companies. There are only five left and they are not producing nearly enough.”
Rutte then gave an example of their dilemma: the ammunition that NATO countries produce in a full year is the equivalent of just three months production in Russia.
US pilots in F-35A fighters practised highway landings in Europe last year of a 30m-wide road in Finland. Photo: NATO
US COMMITMENT
On American commitment, Rutte says the Trump administration is “totally committed” to NATO but wants Europe to spend more which he believes will help him convince the nations to spend more.
“We agreed on this famous 2 per cent (defence to GDP spending ratio and) nothing happened. Then Trump became president, everybody woke up and we started to spend more,” he says.
“But it is not enough; we have to take a next big step and I think it will be huge step.”
He points to current fundings gap in armies and for long-range missiles, air defence systems, logistics and military mobility as areas in need of more funding.
“We have so many issues and we cannot pay for them with 2 per cent, so it has to be really much more.”
He remains unfazed about American commitment (“they’re doing what is needed”); it’s his own backyard that worries him but he says he has cause to hope.
“I’m also optimistic because all the signals I’m getting now in the last two, three months is that the coin has dropped; that people understand this is necessary.”
He points to Denmark’s recent decision to spend another €6.7bn ($11.2bn) on defence over the next two years, adding to €25.5bn ($42.24bn) in defence funding for 10 years announced last year.
The new funding will lift Danish spending on defence to more than 3 per cent of its GDP.
Danish authorities have been rattled by Trump’s repeated comments about wanting to annex Greenland and make it a US state.
“I know some countries will come out with big announcements over the coming weeks so that is really good.”
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth recently lauds Poland’s commitment; the European nation is spending 4.1 per cent of its GDP on defence.
He says the US wants to expand its defence industrial base with Poland.
“I will state definitively, as I did in Brussels, that America is committed to the NATO alliance,” Hegseth told journalists on a recent visit to Poland.
“…. now is the time to invest, because you can’t make an assumption that America’s presence will last forever.”
TROOP NUMBERS
- Newsweek earlier this year says the US has as many as 100,000 troops in Europe.
- Of that, 65,754 are permanently based with the rest made up by deployments.
- Germany hosts the largest number of US troops with 34,894 troops.
- Other countries hosting sizeable troop numbers are Italy (12,319), United Kingdom (10,180), Spain (3253) and Turkey (1683).
- The US military’s European Command (or EUCOM) covers 51 nations.
- The figures include Army, Navy, Marine, Air Force, Space Force and Coast Guard personnel as well as those assigned to the State Department and embassies.
