Moscow (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that NATO members’ decision to boost defence spending would be disastrous for the alliance and could ultimately lead to its demise, state news agency TASS reported on Monday.
In response to NATO allies arranged raise to their collective spending objective to 5% of gross domestic product over the next decade, On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that NATO’s increased defence spending targets will lead to the alliance’s downfall, and that the West should be “guided by common sense”.
“He probably foresees, since he is such a predictor, that the catastrophic, in my opinion, increase in the budget of NATO countries will also lead to the collapse of this organisation,”
Lavrov stated to journalists following a session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the
Collective Security Treaty Organisation, remarking on Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski’s comments that the growth in Russia’s military spending would “lead to collapse.”
Russian Foreign Minister also underscored that Moscow will lower its defence spending “guided by common sense” as Russian President Vladimir Putin also reported previously, and
“not by fictitious and far-fetched threats, as NATO member countries do, including Sikorski.”
What triggered NATO’s decision to raise defence budgets?
Recently, NATO leaders gave their backing to the substantial increase in defence spending that US President Donald Trump had called for, and reaffirmed their pledge to defend each other against attack following a brief summit in the Netherlands.
At a five-point statement, NATO backed the increased defence spending target – a move prompted not only by Trump, but also by concerns among Europeans that Russia poses a growing threat to their security in the wake of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The 32 partners’ brief communique also said: “We reaffirm our ironclad commitment to collective defence as enshrined in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty – that an attack on one is an attack on all.”
Furthermore, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who hosted the summit in his hometown of The Hague, stated that NATO would come out of the summit as a ‘stronger, fairer and more potent’ alliance.
He claimed Trump deserved “all the praise” for persuading NATO members to increase defence spending. When asked by a reporter if he had been overly complimentary to keep Trump onside during the summit, Rutte replied that the two men were friends and that his approach was a matter of personal opinion.
