NATO chief and US defence secretary on need to increase defence spending

Описание: (13 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:

AGENCY POOL
Brussels - 13 February 2025
++STARTS ON SOUNDBITE ++
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Rutte, NATO Secretary-General:
“We have to ramp up defense spending because we know we cannot protect ourselves four or five years from now if we don't. And also, we need to ramp up defense spending because it is clear that U.S., U.S. rightly requires us to do more here on the European side or the Canadian side of NATO. It's only fair. It's only sensible. We also will discuss defense industrial production because we simply do not produce enough. This is including the U.S. and up to and including Turkey and everything in between. We need to really get more output from our huge defense industrial base, to keep up with Russia, the Chinese and others. And then during the lunch, we, of course, discuss Ukraine.”
++BLACK FRAMES+++
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Rutte, NATO Secretary-General
“There is a clear convergence emerging, and I'm very happy about this. And the convergence is: one, we need peace in Ukraine. Two, we have to make sure that that Ukraine is in a position of strength. And three, as you, Pete, said yesterday, we can never, ever, ever again have a Minsk three situation where a peace is not durable. So collectively we'll work on that. We will discuss this amongst allies."
++BLACK FRAMES+++
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Pete Hegseth, U.S. Defense Secretary:
“We echo your sentiments on defense spending. The president has said 2% is not enough. And we're going to argue that up to 5% is the necessary investment from NATO countries to ensure we're able to meet the threats of the future, whether that's Russia on the continent or an ascendant China who has their own ambitions as well. But also the defense industrial base, not just in, in Europe, but in the United States as well. We need the ability to create the systems and the munitions necessary to sustain a fight. One other the thing I would add is foreign military sales. And that's something the United States is committed to expediting the process of ensuring that our allies get what they need when they need it. That is critically important."
++BLACK FRAMES+++
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Pete Hegseth, U.S. Defense Secretary:
“There's one man in the world capable of convening the parties together to bring peace, and that's President Donald Trump, which he demonstrated yesterday, in speaking to both Vladimir Putin, and Zelenskyy and bringing about, we believe, a durable, lasting peace on the continent, which his goal is to stop the killing and bring that peace that it's in the interest of the continent and the United States to do so.
5. Wide of handshake between Rutte and Hegseth before they walk away
STORYLINE:
New US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in Brussels on Thursday that NATO’s European allies must spend more on their own defense budgets.

Twenty-three of the 32 member countries were forecast to have met the organization’s guideline of spending 2% of gross domestic product on their national defense budgets last year, but a third still do not.

But Hegseth's French counterpart, Sébastien Lecornu, described the wrangling over greater defense spending as “a false debate,” saying that governments and parliaments across Europe are already approving more weapons purchases and bigger military budgets while helping Ukraine stave off an invasion.


Several NATO allies are insisting that Ukraine and Europe must not be cut out of any peace negotiations, after U.S. President Donald Trump signalled that he would hold talks soon with Russian President Vladimir Putin.


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