EU to develop defense industry based on NATO capability targets – Rutte

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said this today ahead of the lunch with the EU leaders during their informal retreat in Brussels, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“What we can share (from information on NATO capability targets – ed.), we will share. Because it is important that the EU takes its decisions in terms of the defense industry based on the capability targets. Obviously, you do not want to make the enemy any more informed than necessary, so we will have to look exactly how we will do that. But we will make sure that the EU has everything it needs to decide on the defense industry,” said Mark Rutte.

He noted that the Allies will be able to determine what the level of defense spending will turn out to be later this year, as NATO’s defense capability tatget assessment is currently underway.

“We must ramp up defense spending, we must ramp up defense production. We will decide on the exact level of defense spending later this year, based on capability targets. We are now assessing the gaps for each of the allies between where we are and where we should be. And based on that, the capability targets will be decided upon. And based on that, we will decide on the new defense spending plans. But it will be considerably higher than 2 percent (of the GDP – ed.), I can assure you,” the Alliance leader noted.

Mark Rutte answered journalists’ questions about what he meant when he said that Europeans should pay the bill for military assistance the United States provides to Ukraine.

“I mean that I expect the U.S. going forward when they deliver military aid, and that we can expect the EU to step up in terms of burden-sharing,” the NATO Secretary General said.

As reported earlier, an informal retreat of EU heads of state and government is taking place in Brussels today, where the parties have gathered to discuss issues related to strengthening European security and defense.