The secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Jens Stoltenberg, has re-launched the invitation to increase the minimum spending ceiling in the defense sector to 2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). On the occasion, he reiterated his welcome to Finland, which has become a full-fledged member of the Atlantic Alliance. The goal is to broaden the boundaries of the alliance and discuss the necessary expenditure on armaments.

Vladimir Putin "had the declared objective of the invasion of Ukraine to obtain less NATO" but he had "the opposite". Today "Finland, and soon Sweden too, will become a full member of the Atlantic Alliance", said the NATO Secretary General in a live stream.

Welcome applause also from the German Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius. "Today the North Atlantic Alliance with Finland grows to 31 members. Finnish's capable armed forces make NATO stronger and the coasts of the Baltic Sea safer. The Baltic States also benefit from it". The German politician then underlined that "Sweden must now follow. Both states belong to NATO".

"We will discuss how to increase investment in defense -concluded Stoltenberg- and I expect when our allies meet at the summit in Vilnius (11-12 July 2023, Editor's note). The allies will agree on more ambitious investments and we will look at 2% of GDP for defence. Not as a spending ceiling, but as a minimum base that we need to spend, in a world more dangerous for security".