The British declaration adds further pressure on Eastern flank countries to drop their hesitation over Rutte, criticized for failing to bring Dutch defense spending up to the 2 percent of GDP target pledged by all NATO allies. Still, Rutte is the clear favorite among big allies. He emerged Wednesday as a frontrunner in what is … Read more
“This is Russia’s war against any rules at all,” Zelenskyy said, to applause from the auditorium, adding:” If you do not manage to act now, Putin will make the next years catastrophic for other countries as well.” Zelenskyy’s appearance in Munich is part on an ongoing campaign to strengthen Kyiv’s ties with its Western allies. … Read more
The U.K. also announced a new plan Thursday to lead a coalition of 14 other European countries, including Turkey, on multinational defense procurement. The two initiatives, according to the U.K. Ministry of Defence, “aim to increase defense industrial capacity across the Euro-Atlantic area, replenish stockpiles at pace, and continue support to Ukraine.” The U.S. and … Read more
BRUSSELS — NATO ‘s secretary general praised the 18 countries that are on track to reach the 2 percent of GDP target on defense spending, and called on the 13 others to help achieve a “fair” burden sharing with the U.S. “That is another record number, and a six-fold increase from 2014, when only three … Read more
Russia, of course, remains the biggest problem for most NATO countries. Not only is Ukraine in need of more Western ammunition to sustain an existential fight against invading Russian forces, but Moscow has also significantly escalated its threat to NATO. On Tuesday it designated Prime Minister Kaja Kallas of Estonia, a frontline NATO state, a … Read more
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the last remaining holdout in Sweden’s bid to join NATO, now says he supports its application and vows that Hungary’s parliament will say yes “at the first possible opportunity.” Orbán’s remark, made during a call today with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, comes a day after he asked his Swedish counterpart … Read more
Latvian Foreign Minister Krišjānis Kariņš, who has joined the race to become NATO’s next secretary-general, thinks the job should go to someone from a country that walks the talk on defense spending. Latvia is investing “about 2.4 percent of our GDP into defense this year, and we’re heading up to 3 percent in the next … Read more
Latvian Foreign Minister Krišjānis Kariņš said Russia “will not stop” after the war in Ukraine and that NATO needs a “long-term strategy” to contain Moscow. “Russia will not stop, Russia can only be stopped,” Kariņš told the Financial Times in an interview published Friday. “Stopping Russia in Ukraine does not mean that it is over. It simply means … Read more
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is confident Sweden will join the military alliance by July at the latest, he told German news agency DPA this week. The next NATO summit will be held in Washington from July 9-11 and the Nordic country will be a fully-fledged member by then, he said. Sweden and Finland abandoned decades … Read more
