Paying for a military instead of “pensions, health and social security” may be painful, but preventing a war is considerably cheaper than fighting one NATO boss says as warns of Russia massively out-building Europe in military equipment.
Former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, this year selected as the Secretary General of NATO, addressed a meeting of The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Brussels and called on Canada and the European members of the alliance to lean more into conflict prevention by getting out of the post-Cold War mindset that has seen military spending and defence capabilities dwindle.
This was based on the precept of a safe world that no longer exists, Rutte said, telling Europeans they had to now “shift to a wartime mindset”. Russia is trying to “crush our freedom and way of life”, the NATO SG said, listing recent sabotage acts against European states by Russian agents and stating: “Hostile actions against Allied countries are real and accelerating… These attacks are not just isolated incidents. They are the result of a coordinated campaign to destabilise our societies and discourage us from supporting Ukraine.”
By using these unconventional ‘hybrid warfare’ attacks against Europe, Rutte said Russia was circumventing NATO’s traditional defence and was bringing “the front line to our front doors. Even into our homes”.
The security situation is the worst he had seen in his lifetime, Rutte said, but NATO and Europe is not yet at war, although “we are certainly not at peace either”. There is no “imminent threat” to the alliance because it has effective military deterrence today, but the NATO leader nevertheless appealed for more work to be put in to keep that deterrence against the threats of tomorrow, which he said were now being played out on the battlefields of Ukraine.
“Ukrainians are fighting against Russian swarms of drones. That’s what we need to be prepared for”, Rutte told the Carnegie conference.
Rutte was blunt about the fact strengthening NATO’s militaries would come with a cost, but insisted this was a worthwhile investment if it prevented a future war, calling it a cost of billions to save trillions. He said: “I know spending more on defence means spending less on other priorities. But it is only a little less. 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 defences much stronger, and to preserve our way of life.”
The remarks echo others made by Rutte’s colleage Admiral Rob Bauer, the most senior military officer at NATO headquarters, who also spoke to the importance he perceived in democracies agreeing to forego some “luxuries” to keep themselves free and conflict-free. He o: “if you ramp up your deterrence and if you ramp up support to Ukraine, there will be less money to spend on other things. It will take away some of our luxuries, it will require sacrifice.”
Underlining the thrust of his speech this week, NATO boss Rutte said: “freedom does not come for free.”
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