NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte notes the importance of assistance to Ukraine in the context of the coming winter.

“Today we discussed how to bolster our support for Ukraine, now … through the difficult winter ahead, you already mentioned it, and also for the long-term. Russia continues to attack Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure. And as winter approaches, our support to Ukraine remains critical,” Rutte said at a joint press conference with Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal in Tallinn on Tuesday.

Asked about reports that North Korea was sending soldiers to Ukraine, Rutte said he had spoken to the South Korean president on the matter on Monday evening, who had promised to send South Korean experts to NATO for consultations.

Rutte also said that Turkey has a sovereign right to engage with BRICS as a NATO member.

“NATO is very popular in Türkiye, and Türkiye is very popular in NATO. So we have to make sure that we make maximum use of each other,” the Secretary General noted.

As Michal noted, in recent years Estonia and a number of other NATO countries have increased their defense spending, and this should continue.

"The current requirement of 2% of GDP is no longer consistent with the current security situation and could be 2.5%. This is a signal to both our allies and our enemies that our resolve, NATO's resolve, should not be tested," Michal said.