Pentagon Chief: NATO increases its budget recognizing that Russia will not be a partner in near future
NATO member countries are increasing their military budgets, as they believe that Russia will not be a partner of the North Atlantic Alliance in the foreseeable future, as stated by Pentagon chief James Mattis on Thursday after a meeting of NATO defense ministers.
"The increase in military budgets by NATO countries for the past several years demonstrates the awareness of the alliance members of the fact that Russia in the near future will not be a partner of this organization, like we wanted it to be in the '90s of the last century," he said.
The Pentagon chief also noted that NATO's decision to strengthen its military potential impacts all areas, from cyber security to nuclear deterrence. "I believe strongly that [NATO] has identified the correct places that we have got to improve, create [military] capabilities, maybe just expand them; but everything from cyber [security] to addressing the nuclear deterrent. I am very comfortable that we had the right discussions today," he said.
At the meeting, a decision was made on the need to further build up the military capabilities of the Alliance through increasing the defense budgets of its member states. In particular, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg noted that the member states decided to increase the number of aircraft invulnerable to modern air defense systems, as well as the number of ships with air defense on board.