This is what the Netherlands' Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on Friday.
According to Schoof, Rutte, who is the former Dutch Prime Minister, is making the appeal in a letter to NATO's 32 member countries. Rutte wants the countries to increase their defence expenditures to 3.5 per cent of GDP and invest an additional 1.5 per cent in other defence-related areas, such as infrastructure and cybersecurity.
The current goal of the Defence Alliance is to allocate at least 2 per cent of GDP spent on defence. The US President Donald Trump has previously demanded that the level be raised to 5 per cent, which is something no country is close to.
The NATO meeting in The Hague will take place on June 24-25. It is given that an increase in the expenditure target is high on the agenda since before.
