BRUSSELS, June 2. /TASS/. The defense ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will discuss national plans on a substantial increase in defense spending at a meeting in Brussels on June 5-6, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said at a meeting with the Bucharest Nine (B9) and Nordic countries in Vilnius.
"I can assure you, this old 2% we agreed in 2014 is not nearly enough to reach all the capability targets we need to reach to fill all the gaps we have in our defense system," he said, according to the alliance’s press service.
"And we also have to acknowledge that next to the hard defense spending, there is the issue of all the defense-related spending, including military mobility," Rutte added, noting that "building up the defense industrial base" is also necessary.
"And of course, we will discuss Ukraine in the Hague, and also today, making sure that Ukraine has what it needs to stay in the fight," he insisted.
It is expected that at the Hague summit, NATO countries will be asked to raise their target military spending to 5% GDP from the current 2%.