Mark Rutte warns NATO members must increase defence spending or ‘you better learn to speak Russian’

The NATO general secretary has called for a 400% increase in air and missile defence spending, claiming member states will need to “start learning Russian” otherwise.

Mark Rutte gave a keynote speech at Chatham House on Monday (9 June), where he proposed a target of 3.5% of economic output on military spending and another 1.5% on “defence-related expenditure”.

“I only need to make sure that collectively we have what we need to prevent us from taking up a Russian language course,” said Rutte, adding member states’ politicians would have to make up the extra cash.

Sir Keir Starmer has committed to spending 2.5% of GDP on defence from April 2027, with the aim of increasing that to 3% over the next parliament.