Russian FM warns of NATO military budget increase can end NATO
(MENAFN) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned on Monday that the decision by NATO countries to significantly increase their military budgets could have “catastrophic” consequences and potentially cause the alliance to collapse.
His comments echoed remarks made earlier by Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who suggested that a rise in Russia’s defense spending might bring down the current government in Moscow.
At last month’s NATO summit in The Hague, member states agreed to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP, up from the previous 2% target. Poland strongly supported this increase, arguing that failing to meet the new goal “as soon as possible” would threaten the alliance, especially given the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
In an interview with Polish media, Sikorski compared contemporary Russia to the former Soviet Union, recalling that President Vladimir Putin had once said the USSR collapsed because it overspent on armaments—and now, according to Sikorski, Putin is repeating the same mistake.
Speaking at the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Foreign Ministers Council in Kyrgyzstan, Lavrov challenged Sikorski’s view, stating, “Perhaps he foresees – being such a prophet – that this catastrophic, in my view, increase in NATO countries’ budgets will also lead to the organization’s collapse.”
Lavrov further noted that Russia intends “to reduce its military spending,” which currently amounts to 6.3% of its GDP, and emphasized that Moscow will act with “common sense, but not made-up threats like NATO member states, including Sikorsky.”
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