NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has suggested that people in Britain "had better learn to speak Russian" if the government did not increase defense spending, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported, quoted by BTA.
When asked by the newspaper whether Rachel Reeves should increase taxes to finance a defense budget of 5% of GDP, Rutte replied that NATO members "had better learn to speak Russian" if they could not commit to more spending.
"If you don't stick to 5%, including 3.5% for defense spending, you can still have the National Health Service... the pension system, but you had better learn to speak Russian. "This is the consequence," he said after a speech in London.
Rutte, who met Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Downing Street on Monday, also warned that Russia could attack NATO by 2030.
The NATO secretary general has been pressuring allies for weeks to increase defense and security spending to a total of 5%.
Rutte spoke in London hours after Russia launched its largest drone attack on Ukraine, the Daily Telegraph reported.
"We see in Ukraine how Russia imposes terror from above, so we will strengthen the shield that protects our skies," Rutte said. He added that NATO needs a "400% increase in air and missile defense" to maintain a credible deterrent and defense system.
Britain will invest more than six billion pounds ($8.13 billion) in submarine production, supporting companies such as defense group BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves will announce, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
In response to US President Donald Trump's insistence that Europe take more responsibility for its own security, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has promised the biggest sustained increase in British defense spending since the end of the Cold War.
Last week, Britain said it would increase the size of its nuclear submarines from the current seven to 12.
In his speech today, Reeves will say that Investment in the nuclear defence sector will include over six billion pounds to increase the "capacity, capability and productivity of the UK submarine industry". including BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce Submarines, a subsidiary of Rolls-Royce.
The investment will help the companies achieve an increase in submarine production announced last week, the government said in a statement.
Russia is determined to test the resolve of the NATO alliance, including by expanding its confrontation with the West beyond the borders of Ukraine, the head of Germany's foreign intelligence service told the media portal "Table.Briefings“, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Bruno Kahl, head of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), said his agency had clear intelligence that Russian officials believed that collective defense obligations enshrined in the NATO treaty no longer had practical force.
"We are absolutely certain and have intelligence that shows that Ukraine is just a step away on the way west," Kahl said in the interview. "That doesn't mean we expect the tank armies to go west," he added. "But we see that NATO's promise of collective defense will be put to the test."
Germany, already the second-largest supplier of weapons and financial support to Ukraine in its war with Russia, has pledged to further increase its support under the new government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, promising to help Ukraine develop new missiles that can strike deep into Russian territory, Reuters reports.
Without specifying the nature of his sources of information, the Fed chief said Russian officials were envisioning confrontations that would fall short of full-scale military involvement but would test whether the United States would truly fulfill its mutual assistance obligations under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.
"They don't need to send armies of tanks to do so," Kahl said. "It is enough to send little green men to Estonia to protect supposedly oppressed Russian minorities."
Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 involved the occupation of buildings and offices by Russian soldiers in unmarked uniforms and plain clothes, who became known as "little green men" when Moscow initially denied their identity, Reuters recalls.
Kahl said his contacts with American colleagues had convinced him that they were taking the Russian threat seriously.
"They are taking it as seriously as we are, thank God", he said.
South Korea is close to signing a deal worth about $6 billion to supply 180 K2 tanks to Poland, Yonhap news agency reported on Monday, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Under the contract, South Korean company Hyundai Rotem, which specializes in the implementation of industrial and defense contracts, will produce 117 tanks, while Polish state-owned Polish Armaments Group will produce the rest locally, Yonhap said.
Hyundai Rotem was not immediately available for comment, Reuters reported.
The signing ceremony will take place in late June in Poland, Yonhap said, citing an anonymous industry source.
In 2022 The two countries signed a $13.7 billion arms deal, Seoul's largest in history, that included the delivery of South Korean K2 tanks, rocket launchers and fighter jets to Poland.
South Korea is using the deal to lay the foundations for a military-industrial giant that the two countries hope will satisfy Europe's hunger for weapons far into the future.
The K2 tank deal, part of a broader 2022 deal, was expected to be finalized by the end of last year but has been delayed, in part due to a political crisis in South Korea triggered by the short-lived declaration of martial law in December, Reuters recalls.