BERLIN – NATO chief Mark Rutte warned on Wednesday that China and Russia present growing threats to the transatlantic alliance, confirming that NATO is preparing for a possible full-scale Russian attack on alliance territory in the coming years.
“Xi Jinping, the president of China, before he would attack Taiwan, he will first make a call into Moscow to ask (Russian President) Putin to keep us busy in this part of Europe,” Rutte told reporters at a news conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin.
“China is rapidly building up its armed forces. They have now more ships sailing than the US. They will have another 100 ships sailing by 2030. They have now 1,000 nuclear warheads. This is not to organize parades in Beijing. This is indeed to use, to make use of this,” he asserted, predicting that China will try to somehow take control of Taiwan.
“Our assumption is, based on many discussions we have had, and of course, what we know from our sources is that the risk is increasingly there,” he said.
Rutte argued that the security threats to NATO from the Indo-Pacific have grown significantly in recent years. He cited North Korea’s active participation in the Ukraine war supporting Russia, China’s provision of dual-use goods to Russia and Iran’s sharing of drone technology with Russian forces.
He speculated that Russia would not stop in Ukraine and would likely launch an attack on NATO territory within the next seven years.
“It has been some of your own German, very senior generals, predicting that three, five, seven years from now, Russia might be able to mount a full-scale attack on NATO territory. Three years is today, five years is next week, seven years is next month,” he warned, and said European allies must boost their defense spending to strengthen deterrence.
Rutte emphasized that NATO allies decided to increase their defense spending goals at last month’s summit not to appease US President Donald Trump, but because they recognize the growing threat.
“We are not doing the 5% and the 3.5% core spending to make one person happy. We do this because we know the threat is there. A threat against the US, a threat against Canada, a threat against the European allies. And that is why we need to spend more on defense,” he said.
ANADOLU, 9.7.2025
