21 March 2023 , 16:31
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NATO countries will be urged to pump more cash into their armed forces when alliance leaders meet this summer, the coalition’s chief warned today
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he would press its 30 members to boost their defence budgets when leaders, including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, meet in Lithuania.
Delivering his annual report at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Mr Stoltenberg said: “We are moving in the right direction but we are not moving as fast as the dangerous world we live in demands.”
He added: “There is no doubt that we need to do more and we need to do it faster.
“The pace we have when it comes to increased defence spending is not high enough.”
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Urging allies to “speed up, to deliver more”, he warned: “In a more dangerous world we need to invest more in defence.”
NATO members are currently expected to spend at least 2% of GDP on defence.
Vladimir Putin first ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in 2014 (RU24/UNPIXS)But figures published today show just seven of 30 members hit the target in 2022.
The UK just scraped over the line at 2.16% - up from 2.12% the previous year.
Mr Sunak has promised to hike the level to 2.5% but refused to set a deadline.
NATO’s annual summit takes place in Lithuanian capital Vilnius in July, where pressure is mounting on the alliance to agree a new funding target - even though most countries are yet to hit the 2% benchmark.
Calls for nations to inject greater funds into their militaries grew after Russia invaded the Crimea and Donbas in eastern Ukraine in 2014 - and increased again after Moscow’s full scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
The war has left a trail of destruction (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)“I will work for and advocate in favour of a more ambitious pledge than the pledge we made in 2014,” vowed Mr Stoltenberg.
“The war started in 2014 with the illegal annexation of Crimea and Russia going into eastern Donbas.
“But of course the full-fledged invasion that we saw last February has made a difficult and dangerous and challenging security situation even more dangerous and even more challenging.
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“If there was a need to increase defence spending back in 2014, it is even more obvious now.”
The NATO chief outlined his plan to ask for more cash (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)Finland and Sweden are preparing to join the coalition to bolster their defences against Kremlin aggression.
Mr Stoltenberg revealed Western officials “have seen some signs” that Vladimir Putin wants lethal weapons from China to use in Ukraine - though there is no evidence Beijing has granted his request.
The NATO chief added: “China should not provide lethal aid to Russia - that would be to support an illegal war and only prolong the war.”
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