NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte urged the 32 member countries to devote more funds, equipment and political energy to the largest world military alliance, while the United States fell from its security role in Europe.
“In 2025, we must considerably increase our efforts to ensure that NATO remains a key source of the military advantage for all our nations. Our freedom and continuous prosperity depend on it,” wrote Rutte in its annual report.
NATO has been dismayed since February, when the American defense secretary Pete Hegseth warned that US security priorities are elsewhere and that Europe should take care of its own security and that of Ukraine.
Rutte's report was published on the NATO website Without any obvious advertising.
In previous years, the secretaries general promoted their annual reports with press conferences and press releases.
NATO did not respond when they were asked why the approach had changed.
Rutte was in Washington on Thursday for meetings with senior American officials, two months before he presides over an American president Donald Trump and his NATO counterparts in the Netherlands.
Managers should define new guidelines for defense expenses.
In 2023, while the large -scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia entered its second year, they agreed that all allies should spend at least 2% of GDP on their military budgets.
Estimates from the annual report showed that 22 allies had reached this objective last year, against a previous forecast of 23.
Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Italy, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain did not do so.
The United States has now spent 3.19% of GDP in 2024, compared to 3.68% ten years ago, when all NATO members promised to increase defense spending after Russia annexed the Crimea Peninsula in Ukraine.
Although it is the only ally to have lower expenses in percentage of GDP than in 2014, the United States spends more dollars than the other combined.
The report estimated that the total NATO military expenditure reached approximately 1.3 billion of dollars (1.1 Billion of euros).
In a sign of the domination of the United States within NATO, Hegseth told Europeans and Canada in February that Ukraine would not recover its whole territory from Russia and would not be authorized to join their military alliance.
ADVERTISEMENT“NATO's support to Ukraine remained strong in 2024,” Rutte wrote in the report, even if doubts surround the Trump administration’s commitment to the country while the cease-fire talks weaken.
“Looking towards the future, the allies of NATO are united in their desire for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine,” wrote Rutte.
It was a discreet assessment of support compared to that of his predecessor Jens Stoltenberg just a year ago.
“Ukraine must prevail as an independent and sovereign nation,” wrote Stoltenberg in its latest annual report. “Supporting Ukraine is not a work of charitable is in our own interest.”
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