NATO Chief Mark Rutte calls for ‘shift to a wartime mindset’

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has called for an urgent “shift to a wartime mindset,” warning that the alliance’s members are not prepared enough for an increasing security threat posed by Russia.

In his first major speech since taking office in October, Rutte said, “To prevent war, we need to prepare for it. It’s time to shift to a wartime mindset, and this means we need to strengthen our defences even more by spending more on defence and producing more and better defence capabilities.”

Rutte highlighted that Moscow is preparing for a “long-term confrontation” with Ukraine and NATO, describing the current security landscape as the most perilous in his lifetime.

“We are not ready for what is coming our way in four to five years,” he cautioned, adding that NATO nations must “turbocharge” their defence spending to adapt to the new reality.

The comments come just weeks before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Trump has questioned America’s commitment to defending NATO allies, at one point arguing that NATO members should spend 5% of their GDP on defence — a suggestion that has been rebuked.

Rutte expressed urgency ahead of NATO’s next summit in The Hague, which is set for just over five months.

He also noted what officials have warned is an increasingly present diverse security landscape with, “cyber-attacks, assassination attempts, acts of sabotage, and more,” carried out by Russia.

“We used to call this hybrid, but these are destabilisation actions and campaigns. Russia is hard at work to weaken our democracies and chip away at our freedom, and it is not alone—it has China, North Korea, and Iran by its side.”

Rutte concluded by supporting Ukraine and emphasising the critical importance of helping Kyiv shift the war’s trajectory. We all want the war to end, but above all, we want peace to last,” he stated.