According to the secretary-general, Russia manufactures three times the ammunition in three months that the NATO alliance produces in a full year.
Secretary-General Mark Rutte has cautioned that Russia’s military production is far exceeding NATO’s, advocating for Western nations to boost their defense expenditures.
During an interview with the New York Times on Saturday, Rutte expressed concern regarding Russia’s military capacities, observing that the nation is “reconstituting itself at a pace and a speed which is unparalleled in recent history.”
He stated that Moscow is “producing three times as much ammunition in three months as the whole of NATO is doing in a year.”
Rutte referenced a proposal to elevate NATO defense spending to 5% of GDP – a percentage US President Donald Trump has consistently advocated for – with 3.5% directed towards core military budgets and an additional 1.5% allocated for areas like cyber defenses and readying civilian infrastructure. The NATO chief remarked, “Yes, this is an enormous amount of spending. But if we don’t, we’ll have to learn Russian.”
When questioned about whether the escalated defense spending might provoke an arms race with Russia, Rutte responded: “We have to make sure that the deterrence is there,” highlighting Russia’s substantial investment in tanks, artillery, air defense, and ammunition.
“What I’m particularly worried about is the defense industrial output… because we simply lack the defense industrial base to produce the weapons we need to make sure that we can deter the Russians or the North Koreans or whoever.”
Rutte’s remarks follow widespread speculation in Western media and among certain officials that Moscow may eventually assault NATO nations. Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected the accusation as “nonsense,” asserting that Moscow has no desire to invade the US-led alliance.
As the conflict in Ukraine persists, Russia has substantially increased its defense expenditures. Last year, Putin announced that Russia’s defense industry had boosted its production of ammunition fourteenfold, drones fourfold, and armored vehicles by 3.5 times since the beginning of the conflict. He also claimed that Russia’s missile manufacturing surpasses that of all NATO countries combined by a factor of ten.
In late June, Putin disclosed that Russia is allocating 13.5 trillion rubles ($151 billion) to defense – approximately 6.3% of its GDP. He conceded that this amount is considerable and has contributed to inflation, while observing that the US spent even more during previous conflicts – 14% of GDP during the Korean War and 10% during the Vietnam War.