Rutte expects new pressure from Trump over low defense spending in Europe

(Patria) - NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte expects new pressure from newly elected US President Donald Trump due to relatively low defense spending among European allies, including Germany.

- He will ask us to do more - Rutte said in an interview with the dpa agency.

NATO members have pledged to invest at least two percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) in defense.

- Many European allies have reached this goal. However, in four to five years, there will be problems deterring Russia if defense investments are not further increased - says Rutte.

However, he did not specify whether NATO allies should aim to allocate three percent of GDP to defense or even more.

A decision on new allocations is expected to be made at the NATO summit next June.

Trump said during the election campaign that he believes it is necessary to increase defense spending to three percent. Recently, reports have emerged that he might even demand five percent.

Trump believes that European allies are doing too little for defense and are too reliant on US protection.

In his first term, he even threatened to withdraw the US from NATO due to low defense spending in Europe.

Germany has recently significantly increased its defense spending, but will only reach a GDP share of around 2.1 percent this year. The US consistently spends significantly more than three percent of GDP on defense.