NATO must prepare for war. It’s time to think like wartime - Rutte
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte called on members of the North Atlantic Alliance to prepare for a war with Russia, which could be in 4-5 years, and to strengthen support for Ukraine.
He said this during a session of the NATO Military Committee in Brussels on January 15, Censor.NET reports citing Voice of America.
To prevent war, we need to prepare for it. It's time to move to a wartime mindset, which means we need to make our defense even stronger by spending more on defense, creating more and better defense capabilities," he emphasized.
"We need to support Ukraine more to change the trajectory of the war, we all want it to end, but above all we want peace to last," the official said.
"We are safe only today, but four or five years will pass, and if we do nothing, we will not be safe anymore. So finish your 'Christian language courses' or go to New Zealand... And this debate needs to be concluded within three to four months in order to stay safe in this part of the world and to protect ourselves," Rutte emphasized.
The NATO Secretary General said that his priority as Secretary General is "to make sure that we do what we need to do and that we are active on Ukraine and the partnership, fully and quickly. And to do that, I count on your continued engagement and support."
Rutte added that Allies must cooperate with partners around the world.
He noted that Russia's threatening actions against European countries are gaining momentum and the Alliance must protect its people.
"We must continue to do everything we can together to protect all our people. Our future security is under threat, Russia's war against Ukraine continues, Russia's hostile actions against our own countries are gaining momentum through cyberattacks, assassination attempts, acts of sabotage, etc. We used to call it hybrid actions, but these are destabilizing actions and campaigns," Rutte said.
According to Rutte, Russia "is trying to weaken our democracies in order to gradually undermine our freedoms. And it is not alone, China, North Korea, and Iran are with it".
