Brussels, 12 December 2024 (dpa/MIA) - NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Thursday the alliance needs to shift to a "wartime mindset" in the face of increased aggression from Russia and new threats from China.

The NATO chief called on the alliance to "turbocharge" defence production and spending during a speech at a think tank event in Brussels aimed at launching a debate on military investment.

NATO allies should invest at least 2% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defence but European members and Canada have often failed in the past to reach this threshold.

The United States has frequently criticized allies who did not invest enough, an issue driven home especially during US President-elect Donald Trump's first administration.

Rutte said the Russian economy is on a "war footing," noting that in 2025, total military spending would be 7-8% of the country's GDP - the highest level since the Cold War.

While noting that defence spending is up from 10 years ago, when NATO first moved to increase investment after the Russian annexation of Crimea, Rutte said allies still spend less than during the Cold War.

This is despite the dangers NATO faces being "just as big, if not bigger," Rutte said. The top NATO official said the current 2% of GDP benchmark is nowhere near enough.

Rutte said that during the Cold War with the Soviet Union, Europeans spent more than 3% of their GDP on defence - however he declined to propose this figure as a new target.

He highlighted current European government expenditure on pensions, health systems and social welfare services as a source of potential funding.

"We need a small fraction of that money to make our defences much stronger, and to preserve our way of life," he said.

Photo: MIA archive