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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor

Nato head: Britain must show ‘credible path’ of annual defence budget increases

Holding a microphone and sitting in a chair before a painting depicting a bucolic scene, Mark Rutte speaks and gestures with his left hand
Nato’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, spoke with the Press Association following meetings with Ed Miliband and Wes Streeting Photograph: The Ditchley Foundation/PA

Britain needs to show “a credible path” of annual increases in its defence budgets to meet a Nato target of spending nearly £30bn more on the military by the middle of the next decade, the head of the alliance said on Thursday.

Mark Rutte, Nato’s secretary general, said that Britain could not wait until just before 2035 to lift defence spending to 3.5% of GDP, in an unusually pointed intervention a day after he met prime minister Andy Burnham.

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