Higher European defence budgets a first step, production needed, NATO's Rutte says

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Higher European defence budgets and a ramp-up of production by military equipment industries are necessary to secure Europe, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in a German newspaper interview.

"We will need to spend more to keep ourselves safe," Rutte told German Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag (WamS).

"But we also need to quickly ramp up our defence production on both sides of the Atlantic...for far too long, we have produced far too little."

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization includes much of Europe and also the United States and Canada.

Ammunition, ships, tanks, jets, but also satellites and drones were needed, Rutte said.

European countries are hastening to boost defence spending and maintain support for Ukraine after U.S. President Donald Trump froze U.S. military aid to Kyiv and raised doubts about Washington's commitment to European allies.

German lawmakers will debate sweeping changes to state borrowing rules to fund defence, alongside a 500-billion euro ($541.60 billion) infrastructure fund, from March 13 to get those measures passed in the outgoing parliament ahead of the formation of a new one on March 25, sources have said.

EU leaders on Thursday held meetings to back joint defence loans to member states and to allow defence spending beyond tight budgetary rules for other sectors.

Rutte said he had met with many heads of defence manufacturing companies and urged them to respond to higher demand.

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(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Sharon Singleton)