NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte answers a question in Berlin on Dec. 11, 2025, during a discussion with German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and Wolfgang Ischinger, chairman of the Munich Security Conference. (X/Munich Security Conference)
Time to prepare for a potential war with Russia is running out, NATO’s top official said Thursday in a warning that chastised some allies for moving too slowly when it comes to ramping up defense spending.
“We are Russia’s next target, and we are already in harm’s way,” Secretary-General Mark Rutte said during a speech in Berlin, where he was joined by German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul.
Both faced questions about the new American national security strategy, which was unveiled last week and has since caused a stir in Europe.
While the strategy emphasized that Europe is “strategically and culturally vital” to the United States, it also took sharp aim at the European Union, which the U.S. says has weakened the Continent with lax immigration rules and a top-down bureaucracy.
Europe faces the “stark prospect of civilizational erasure,” the strategy states.
Rutte and Wadephul downplayed the notion that the new strategy signals a division between Europe and the United States.
Still, it has caused panic in some quarters, with various officials and security analysts warning of a looming rupture in a trans-Atlantic alliance that has been the cornerstone of U.S. security strategy since World War II.
One concern that has emerged is that the American commitment to providing NATO with its nuclear deterrent against Russia may not be reliable.
“It is obvious the United States is no longer willing to risk their lives for Europe like they were in the old days,” Danish lawmaker Rasmus Jarlov said during a television appearance Wednesday. “The only credible response against that is to have your own nuclear weapons. Now that American weapons no longer back us up, we need other weapons that can.”
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, center, listens to German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul during a discussion Dec. 11, 2025, in Berlin. At right is Wolfgang Ischinger, chairman of the Munich Security Conference, who hosted the event. (X/Munich Security Conference)
Rutte, however, said Thursday that there was no indication of the U.S. backing away from any of its commitments to NATO.
Though he didn’t single out any countries, he said some complacency remains in the 32-nation bloc, despite ongoing hostilities in Ukraine and various acts of gray-zone warfare around Europe that have been blamed on Russia.
“Too many don’t feel the urgency, and too many believe that time is on our side. It is not,” said Rutte, who added that Russia could be prepared for a war on NATO within five years.
In his remarks at a forum hosted by the think tank that puts on the annual Munich Security Conference, Rutte lauded Germany, once a NATO spending laggard, as an alliance leader on ramping up expenditures.
For his part, Wadephul said he expects Germany to reach NATO’s new benchmark of dedicating 5% of GDP to defense well before a 2035 deadline.
The comments come at a time when the United States is demanding that allies in Europe shoulder more responsibility for the defense of the Continent.
Last week, news reports emerged that some Pentagon officials want to shift most military defense responsibilities to allies by 2027. Rutte, however, said no such deadline exists.
“The whole rumor about 2027 is not right. The U.S. has also confirmed that. So that’s off,” Rutte said.
Still, Rutte emphasized that failure to increase defense spending at a faster pace increases the odds that Russian President Vladimir Putin will launch an attack on NATO territory.
“Conflict is at our door,” Rutte said. “Russia has brought war back to Europe, and we must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents and great grandparents endured.”
For NATO, boosting support for Ukraine also is viewed as a way to keep Russia on its heels. While U.S. President Donald Trump attempts to negotiate a peace deal between the two countries, allies must keep the pressure on Moscow by getting more arms into the hands of Ukrainian troops, Rutte said.
Russia has been making incremental gains in Ukraine, which is struggling with a manpower shortage and insufficient air defense systems to ward off attacks.
The Russian war machine is now cranking out thousands of attack drones and missiles per month and is close to “peak production,” Rutte said
Since the Kremlin’s 2022 full-scale invasion, more than 1 million Russian troops have been killed or injured in the fighting, Rutte said, adding that this year, Russia has lost on average about 1,200 troops a day.
“If (Putin) is prepared to sacrifice ordinary Russians in this way, what is he prepared to do to us?” Rutte said.
