Arya News - Mark Rutte has warned NATO countries that unless they raise military spending to 5% of GDP, they should "learn to speak Russian."
Mark Rutte has warned NATO countries that unless they raise military spending to 5% of GDP, they should "learn to speak Russian."In recent months, Rutte has constantly pointed to the so-called threats from Russia and China in his speeches, calling on the alliance states to increase spending on militarization by several times over at the expense of social spending.Earlier in June, Rutte proposed increasing defense spending from the current 2% to 3.5% of GDP, and spending another 1.5% of GDP on infrastructure development, military industry, and other security-related investments.In recent years, Russia has noted NATO"s unprecedented activity near its western borders. The alliance is expanding its initiatives and calling it "containment of Russian aggression."Moscow has repeatedly expressed concern about the bloc"s build-up of forces in Europe.The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that the authorities in Moscow remained open to dialogue with NATO, but on an equal basis, while the West must abandon its course toward militarizing the continent.