NATO's Rutte urges more support for Ukraine and backs Trump's defence budget demand

euronews (in English)

NATO chief Mark Rutte supported Trump's push for higher defence budgets and warned that a Russian victory in Ukraine would damage NATO's credibility and increase costs.

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00:00NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte urged Ukraine's Western allies to enhance their support towards

00:07Kiev and backed U.S. President Donald Trump's push for increasing the defense budget.

00:14Europe's defense budget is currently on average 2 percent.

00:17Rutte agreed with Trump and said there should be much more.

00:21Speaking at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, he added that the European

00:26defense industry is innovating too slowly and that the focus should be on establishing

00:30an industrial base.

00:31It has to be much more.

00:33I think Donald Trump is right here that we are spending not enough and anyway we have

00:38to get it into a balance with what the U.S. is spending.

00:42But particularly here we have to look out for the industry base.

00:47So what our defense industry is producing, and they are not producing enough, but also

00:53in terms of innovation, we are too slow in innovating.

00:57The NATO chief also warned that a Russian victory over Ukraine would damage the alliance's

01:02credibility and that it could potentially cost trillions to restore.

01:06Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

01:11said a minimum of 200,000 troops are required to ensure Ukraine's security in the case of

01:17a ceasefire with Russia.

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