Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has criticized NATO for its proposed 5% defense spending target, accusing the bloc of fueling a global arms race and encouraging more wars rather than addressing global development needs.
Lula made his remarks during a speech at the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, where he highlighted the unprecedented number of armed conflicts since World War II. The NATO proposal to increase military spending from 2% to 5% of GDP has been endorsed by Secretary-General Mark Rutte and several member states, including the United States and Poland, who justify the increase as a response to supposed Russian threats.
Russia, however, has denied any intention to attack NATO states and has accused the bloc of using the ‘Russia threat’ to distract from its domestic problems. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated that NATO’s expansion toward Russia’s borders and its efforts to integrate Ukraine into the alliance constitute a direct threat to Russian security, leading to its military operation in 2022. Lavrov also warned that NATO’s proposed spending increase could lead to the bloc’s collapse, while indicating that Moscow intends to reduce its military spending in the coming years, guided by ‘common sense’ rather than fabricated threats.