Russia produces three times more ammunition in three months than NATO does in a year: Rutte
Russia produces three times more ammunition in three months than all NATO countries put together in a year. This was stated by the Secretary General of the Alliance, Mark Rutte, commenting on the need to increase the defense spending of member countries to 5%. informs The New York Times.
“We have a huge geopolitical challenge ahead of us. And this is, first of all, Russia, which is rebuilding itself at a pace and speed that has no analogues in recent history. It is now producing three times more ammunition in three months than all of NATO in a year. It is intolerable, but the Russians are working together with the North Koreans, with the Chinese and the Iranians, with the mullahs, waging this unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine. So here The Indo-Pacific and your Atlantic are becoming more and more interconnected.” – noted the NATO Secretary General.
Rutte also recalled the threat from China, noting that Beijing “has its eye on Taiwan.” Given this situation, he emphasized that NATO will not be able to defend itself effectively if it continues to adhere to the norm of 2% of GDP for defense.
“So when it comes to core defense spending, we have to increase it to 3.5 percent. And then, of course, all defense-related spending. We need to develop the defense industrial base. We need to spend money on cybernetics, on hybrid weapons. We need to prepare our society as a whole, not just the military. That’s an additional 1.5 percent that leads to 5 percent. Yeah, yeah, that’s a huge amount of spending. But if we don’t let’s do it, we’ll have to learn Russian”, – stated Rütte.
