Rutte says UK grasps need for steady path to 3.5% defence target

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told the BBC he is confident the UK Government understands the need for a "credible path" to higher defence spending. He said he was "absolutely confident" Britain will meet the NATO-wide target of 3.5% of GDP by 2035. Ministers, he said, accept they must take yearly steps towards that goal. BBC

Rutte spoke to BBC political editor Chris Mason after meetings in London with Defence Secretary Wes Streeting and Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband. He said the 2035 target could not be met "in one go in 2034". He has urged allies not to leave increases until the last minute.

What that path will be, Rutte said, will become clear at the UK spending review next year, the process in which ministers set budgets for departments. Chancellor John Healey had pointed to an interim aim of 3% of GDP by 2030 as a sign of credibility. Prime Minister Andy Burnham recommitted to the 3.5% target after entering Downing Street, after his predecessor Keir Starmer signed up to the goal last year.

Rutte said defence spending should be kept separate from welfare spending, and said economic growth is the key to meeting military commitments. He said the test will come next year.

The 3.5% figure is part of NATO's wider pledge to invest 5% of GDP a year in defence by 2035. Of that, 3.5% is for core defence and NATO Capability Targets, the agreed lists of forces and equipment each ally must provide, with a further 1.5% for wider security-related spending. Allies have agreed to submit annual plans showing a steady path to the goal. NATO

Rutte, a former Dutch prime minister, pressed members to commit to the 5% defence-related figure at the leaders' meeting in The Hague. Ahead of the summit on 7 July, he urged members to present "clear, concrete and credible plans" for reaching 3.5%. Starmer had told Rutte the UK would publish its defence plan before that summit and repeated his aim to raise UK spending to 3% of GDP. Rutte later described the UK's Defence Investment Plan (DIP) as a "good step". He also gave a speech at Chatham House in London saying member states need to spend more.

NATO's European allies and Canada increased defence spending by 20% in 2025 compared with the previous year in real terms, that is after adjusting for inflation. Reuters NATO said in June 2025 that all allies would reach the earlier target of 2% of GDP on defence that year. Rutte has said NATO will become more European-led.

The broader context here is enforcement by timetable. For Rutte, annual increases and annual national plans are the mechanism that turns a 2035 pledge into something that can be checked in Brussels. That explains his focus on yearly steps and his warning against backloading, or leaving most of the rise to the end. In NATO terms, he suggests, credibility does not mean a single announcement. It means a published plan, funded year by year.

Looking at what this means for Whitehall, the politics are finely balanced. Burnham has continuity on his side, having recommitted to a target Starmer accepted, and Rutte said in June he was confident Burnham would keep to the commitments. Healey's 3% by 2030 staging post gives an interim test. The spending review next year is now the binding moment. Growth, not redistribution, is Rutte's prescription for squaring defence with welfare. That wording may suit ministers who want to avoid a direct choice between guns and butter, but it leaves the fiscal question open if growth disappoints.