NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday that the Atlantic Alliance must prepare for a long war in Ukraine and urged allies to increase defense spending.
“Most wars last longer than we think when they start. That is why we must prepare for a long war in Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said in a statement to the German media group. Funke.
Stoltenberg said that While a quick peace would be desirable, we should not forget that “if the Ukrainians stopped fighting, Ukraine would cease to exist.”
According to Stoltenberg, peace will only come when Russian President Vladimir Putin stops attacking Ukraine.
After peace, Stoltenberg said, Ukraine will need security guarantees There is no doubt that the country will be part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, its abbreviation in English).
On the other hand, Stoltenberg emphasizes that NATO members must increase military spending and meet the target of spending at least 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense.
Germany is one of the countries that has not yet achieved this goal, but the NATO leader emphasized that he is “on the right track”.
“During the Cold War, when Willy Brandt and Konrad Adenauer ruled, defense spending was about 4% of GDP. It is important for NATO that the most populous European member state achieves the target; 2% of a large cake is more than 2% of a small cake,” he added.
Stoltenberg said that as Norwegian Prime Minister he knows how difficult it is to increase defense spending if major expenditure also needs to be made on health care or infrastructure, but he stressed that this is necessary when tensions rise.
NATO military officials have been meeting in Oslo, the Norwegian capital, since Friday and until today.
The eastern flank is the one that worries NATO the most, because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
But several countries that make up the organization, including Portugal, have insisted on the need to also look at the southern flank, more specifically at Africa, where Wagner’s Russian mercenaries operate, and in view of the deterioration of the geopolitical situation in the Sahel. of several military coups since 2020, most recently in Niger.
Source: DN
