{"id":300429,"date":"2024-12-15T09:03:45","date_gmt":"2024-12-15T09:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=300429"},"modified":"2024-12-17T07:22:38","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T07:22:38","slug":"europe-must-adopt-wartime-mindset-to-stop-putin-says-nato-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=300429","title":{"rendered":"Europe must adopt \u2018wartime mindset\u2019 to stop Putin, says Nato chief"},"content":{"rendered":"

Associated Press \u2013 Dec 13, 2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

The Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte (sbove), has said that Vladimir Putin<\/a> wants to \u201cwipe Ukraine off the map\u201d and could come after other parts of Europe next, as he urged Europeans to press their governments to increase defence spending.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is time to shift to a wartime mindset,\u201d Rutte told security experts and analysts at the Carnegie Europe<\/a> thinktank in Brussels.<\/p>\n

He said people should gird themselves for the prospect that Russia might try to use \u201cswarms of drones\u201d in Europe as it has to deadly effect in Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Putin \u201cis trying to crush our freedom and way of life\u201d, Rutte said. The former Dutch prime minister listed Russia\u2019s attacks on Georgia in 2008, the annexation of Ukraine\u2019s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, and the all-out invasion of the country launched almost three years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many more wake-up calls do we need? We should be profoundly concerned. I know I am,\u201d he said. \u201cRussia is preparing for long-term confrontation. With Ukraine, and with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rutte\u2019s inaugural speech amid reports that Nato<\/a> members are considering increasing defence spending to 3% of every member\u2019s national budget \u2013 it is currently 2%.<\/p>\n

Such a steep rise might help to placate the incoming US president, Donald Trump, who has consistently criticised European countries for relying too heavily on US cash to fund the alliance.<\/p>\n

The speech on Thursday came just over two months after Rutte took office as Nato\u2019s top civilian official. He has since toured the capitals of the 32 allies, including a visit to the US to meet with P Trump.<\/p>\n

The UK prime minister has said he wants to increase Britain\u2019s defence spending to 2.5% of GDP.<\/p>\n

Nato has been a staunch backer of Ukraine and has helped most of its members funnel weapons, ammunition and other support into the country. But Trump\u2019s return, and pledge to end the war quickly, has fuelled concern that an unfavourable truce might be forced on Kyiv.<\/p>\n

Asked by the Associated Press how damaging a quick and shoddy peace agreement might be, Rutte said that \u201ca bad deal means Putin coming out on top, and that will have worldwide ramifications, not only on Europe and Ukraine\u201d. He insisted that Ukraine must be involved in any peace talks.<\/p>\n

Trump routinely complains that US allies in Nato are not spending enough on defence. Rutte said Russia\u2019s military spending was likely to amount to 7-8% of its GDP next year \u2013 far more than any Nato ally \u2013 while its defence industry churns out tanks, armoured vehicles and ammunition.<\/p>\n

Putin also has the support of China, Iran and North Korea.<\/p>\n

Rutte noted that defence spending has risen sharply in Europe, with 23 allies expected to reach Nato target of putting 2% of GDP into their military budgets. But he added: \u201cI can tell you, we are going to need a lot more than 2%.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rutte listed a series of recent \u201chostile actions\u201d by Russia against Nato allies, including cyber-attacks, assassinations, an explosion at a Czech ammunition depot, the jamming of radars in the Baltic region to disrupt air traffic, and the \u201cweaponisation\u201d of migrants to destabilise Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese attacks are not just isolated incidents. They are the result of a coordinated campaign to destabilise our societies and discourage us from supporting Ukraine,\u201d he said. \u201cThey circumvent our deterrence and bring the front line to our front doors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond increased defence spending in Europe, Rutte noted that Nato now has tens of thousands of troops on high readiness should they be needed to defend allied territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith all this, our deterrence is good \u2013 for now. But it\u2019s tomorrow I\u2019m worried about,\u201d he said, and warned that \u201cwe are not ready for what is coming our way in four to five years. Danger is moving towards us at full speed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is happening in Ukraine could happen here too, and regardless of the outcome of this war, we will not be safe in the future unless we are prepared to deal with danger,\u201d Rutte added.<\/p>\n

He appealed to governments to provide the defence industry with \u201cthe big orders and long-term contracts they need to rapidly produce more and better capabilities\u201d. He urged the industry to boost production for defences against drones and other new war tactics.<\/p>\n

He added that \u201cfreedom does not come for free\u201d to the estimated 1 billion people living in the Euro-Atlantic area.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t spend more together now to prevent war, we will pay a much, much, much higher price later to fight it. Not billions, but trillions of euros. That\u2019s if we come out on top, and that\u2019s if we win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coming from NATO secretary general Mark Rutte and dutifully echoed by the mainstream media (MSM), we believe that is meant to prime the public mentally for war with Russia. As Rutte himself asks: how many wake-up calls do we need\u201d? Indeed how many more do we need before we realize that our real enemies reside not in Moscow but in our own governments and MSM? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-300429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-russia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=300429"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":300443,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300429\/revisions\/300443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=300429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=300429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=300429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}