Stoltenberg spent his last day at the NATO headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday, after ten years in the post. In another farewell interview with the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung recently, he lamented the slow footwork in NATO regarding Ukraine. He returns to it. The country should have received more earlier.
We should all acknowledge that we should have given them more weapons before the invasion. And we should have given them more advanced weapons faster after the invasion. I take my responsibility for it, says Stoltenberg.
He says that there was a great discussion in NATO about arms deliveries.
Before the invasion, many allies were against it, they were very concerned about the consequences.
Stoltenberg claims that he, especially in the beginning of the war after Russia's invasion at the end of February 2022, spent a lot of time pressing to cross the red lines that the Russian President Vladimir Putin set up.
We have crossed many of them, and he has not done anything, says Stoltenberg.
But for NATO and its member states to be able to stand up to threats and Russia, more money is required in the defense budgets, according to Stoltenberg.
I can definitely say that if the members are to live up to what they have promised, it will cost much more than 2 percent, he says, referring to GDP.
