(Bloomberg) – NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that the increase in European government defense budget is the first step to secure the continent and contractors need to play their role by increasing output.
“We also need to quickly improve our defense production,” Rutt said in an interview with German newspaper Welt Am Sonntag. “This includes ammunition, ships, tanks, jets, and satellites and drones. For a long time, we have produced too little.”
When President Donald Trump expressed doubts about the role of the 32-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization, including the United States and Canada and most of Europe, Europe is making major efforts to stop Russian aggression.
Germany plans to ease debt restrictions to strengthen its military, while France has proposed to extend its nuclear shield to its neighbors.
At an emergency meeting in Brussels on Thursday, EU leaders discussed a European Commission proposal that included loans of 150 billion euros ($162.5 billion) to member states, as well as plans to allow countries to use their national budgets to potentially spend 650 billion euros on defense over four years without causing budget fines.
When Rat praised Germany’s defense companies, he said: “The truth is that we are not producing as we need it.”
“I’ve gone to multiple defense manufacturers and met with CEOs of many large arms companies and I have a clear message about them: the demand is there, and we’re counting on you to satisfy it now,” the former Dutch prime minister said.
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