Rutte highlights staggering $258 billion NATO investment by Europe, Canada

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte underlined that European countries and Canada are making additional investments in the alliance totalling $258 billion over 2025–2026, describing the sum as “staggering.”

“A quarter of a trillion dollars in extra investment, a staggering sum,” Rutte said in his annual lecture at an event hosted by the UK-based Ditchley Foundation, a recording of which was published on the Forbes Breaking News YouTube channel.

According to Rutte, European allies and Canada increased their core defence spending by nearly 20% in 2025 compared with the previous year and are on track to bring their military spending into line with that of the United States.

The NATO secretary general added that European countries and Canada lead eight of the alliance’s nine forward land formations deployed from the Black Sea to the Arctic Circle.

By Jeyhun Aghazada