NATO Secretary General invokes spirit of Churchill to spur on NATO defence spending

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has delivered a warning about Russia’s growing capacity to churn out war materiel and the imperative for NATO to robustly respond.

Giving a speech at the Chatham House think tank in London on 9 June 2025, Rutte warned that the ‘war machine’ of Russian President Vladimir Putin “is speeding up – not slowing down”.

He pointed to how Russia is reconstituting its forces with Chinese technology and producing more weapons faster than previously thought possible.

“In terms of ammunition, Russia produces in three months what the whole of NATO produces in a year,” said the secretary general, “And its defence-industrial base is expected to roll out 1,500 tanks, 3,000 armoured vehicles and 200 Iskander missiles this year alone.”

Rutte then warned that Russia “could be ready to use military force against NATO within five years”, adding, “Let’s not kid ourselves, we are all on the Eastern flank now.”

The secretary general additionally warned that China “is also modernising and expanding its military at breakneck speed”, adding that it “already has the world’s largest navy”, with a battle force expected to grow to 435 ships by 2030, and is also building up its nuclear arsenal, aiming to have “more than 1,000 operational nuclear warheads, also by 2030”.

Commending the UK’s recently published Strategic Defence Review, which has a ‘NATO first’ policy at its core, Rutte said the SDR “will strengthen and modernise Britain’s armed forces and enhance NATO’s collective defence”, while adding, “Commitment has a cost. And I welcome that the UK government will spend significantly more on defence in the future.”

He then laid out what NATO’s response to Putin truly demands. Looking forward to the upcoming NATO Summit, which will be held in The Hague from 24 to 25 June, Rutte said, “I expect Allied leaders will agree to spend 5% of GDP on defence. It will be a NATO wide commitment and a defining moment for the Alliance. There are two parts to this new defence spending plan: 3.5% will be invested in our core military requirements; while the rest will go towards defence and security related investments, including infrastructure and building industrial capacity.”

Rutte asserted that this 5% of GDP target “is not some figure plucked from the air; it is grounded in hard facts”, adding that NATO needs “a quantum leap in our collective defence”.

In delivering his speech in London, Rutte sought to invoke the spirit of UK wartime prime minister Winston Churchill, who before the outbreak of the Second World War was a lone voice warning of the dangers of appeasing Nazi Germany, only to be proved right as Adolf Hitler invaded Europe.

Drawing the analogy between appeasing Hitler in the 1930s and not robustly responding to Putin today, Rutte said, “In 1936 Winston Churchill posed this question during a debate in the House of Commons: ‘Will there be time to put our defences in order? …. Will there be time to make these necessary efforts, or will the awful words ‘too late’ be recorded?’And that is the question for NATO now. History has taught us that to preserve peace, we must prepare for war. Wishful thinking will not keep us safe. We cannot dream away the danger. Hope is not a strategy. So NATO has to become a stronger, fairer and more lethal Alliance.”

Towards the end of his speech Rutte noted, “The venue for our summit in The Hague is on Churchillplein – Churchill Square. His bulldog spirit is alive today in NATO. We have the confidence, commitment and courage to do whatever it takes to protect our way of life. There are no second chances when it comes to our security. So, we will deliver in The Hague.”