NATO chief urges Trump to loosen U.S. defense sales rules
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte emphasized on Thursday in an interview with dpa that he wants to persuade Donald Trump to make it easier for European allies to purchase military equipment from the U.S. Europe could buy more if not for the strict American export regulations.
Rutte highlighted that the spending by European allies on American equipment already amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars. However, it could be significantly higher "if the U.S. defense industry were liberalized and open, and there was no need to obtain approval from Congress, the Pentagon, and the White House," he added in the conversation with dpa.
As an example, he cited the demand from European partners for Patriot air and missile defense systems.
- Each one costs $2 billion. It's a huge amount for the U.S. and the American economy - noted Rutte. At the same time, he pointed out that currently, deliveries of Patriot systems to Europe take a very long time.
Rutte expects that Trump, as President of the U.S., will exert greater pressure on those European allies who spend relatively little on defense. According to Trump, countries in Europe are doing far too little in terms of defense and rely too heavily on the U.S. for support.
During his first presidency (2017-2021), Trump even threatened to withdraw the U.S. from NATO for this reason. He has recently demanded that allies allocate 5% of their GDP to defense in the future. For Germany and many other countries, this would mean the necessity of more than doubling their expenditures on this purpose - as reported by dpa.
NATO chief warns: spending needs to increase
In principle, liberalizing the U.S. defense market could make it easier for interested countries to invest larger amounts, and at the same time, would allow Trump to claim that he strengthened the American defense industry - the German agency noted.
Rutte repeatedly emphasized that he considers increasing defense spending in Europe necessary. - Generally speaking, European allies already invest over 2% of their GDP in defense - said Rutte. - However, in four to five years, deterrence problems with Russia may arise if spending is not increased - warned the NATO Secretary General.
