Nato chief says members willingly boosted defence budget amid Russian threat

The head of Nato, Mark Rutte, has said it was "not a difficult thing" to get members to agree to raise defence spending to 5% of GDP because of the rising threat from Russia and stressed that Donald Trump remained "absolutely" committed to supporting the alliance.

- Pjotr Sauer and Dan Sabbagh

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian on the eve of the alliance's summit, Rutte said all 32 members had agreed to raise defence spending because "there is so much at stake" after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Under the planned agreement, Nato members would commit to increase defence spending to 3.5% of GDP, with an additional 1.5% allocated to broader security-related investments, including cybersecurity and intelligence, to make up the headline 5%. "The security situation has changed so much, and people know that when the call comes [in the event of an attack on a Nato member]... you now need to deliver to the collective endeavour what you promised, that you better have your stuff there," Rutte said.

The summit comes at a critical moment for the alliance, amid the war in Ukraine and the risk of an escalating conflict in the Middle East.

Speaking in The Hague, his hometown, Rutte described Russia as "the most significant and direct threat" to Nato, warning that Moscow could be capable of launching an attack on alliance members within three to five years. "It's clear they want to extend their territory," the former Dutch prime minister said. "For a couple of years now they've been reconstituting themselves rapidly."