NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has called for an urgent “shift to a wartime mindset,” warning that the alliance’s members are not prepared enough for an increasing security threat posed by Russia.

In his first major speech since taking office in October, Rutte said, “To prevent war, we need to prepare for it. It’s time to shift to a wartime mindset, and this means we need to strengthen our defences even more by spending more on defence and producing more and better defence capabilities.”

Rutte highlighted that Moscow is preparing for a “long-term confrontation” with Ukraine and NATO, describing the current security landscape as the most perilous in his lifetime.

“We are not ready for what is coming our way in four to five years,” he cautioned, adding that NATO nations must “turbocharge” their defence spending to adapt to the new reality.

The comments come just weeks before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Trump has questioned America’s commitment to defending NATO allies, at one point arguing that NATO members should spend 5% of their GDP on defence — a suggestion that has been rebuked.

Rutte expressed urgency ahead of NATO’s next summit in The Hague, which is set for just over five months.

He also noted what officials have warned is an increasingly present diverse security landscape with, “cyber-attacks, assassination attempts, acts of sabotage, and more,” carried out by Russia.

“We used to call this hybrid, but these are destabilisation actions and campaigns. Russia is hard at work to weaken our democracies and chip away at our freedom, and it is not alone—it has China, North Korea, and Iran by its side.”

Rutte concluded by supporting Ukraine and emphasising the critical importance of helping Kyiv shift the war’s trajectory. We all want the war to end, but above all, we want peace to last,” he stated.

President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Ret. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, recently said the United States must return to the policy of “maximum pressure” and that the Iranian regime’s weakness has reopened what the future of Iran will look like.

“I believe this year should be considered a year of hope, it should be considered a year of action, and it should be considered a year of change,” Kellogg, who served in Trump’s first administration, said at an event sponsored by an Iranian opposition group, The National Council of Resistance of Iran, in Paris.

The retired lieutenant general said that Iran’s development and acquisition of a nuclear weapon would be the most destabilizing event for the Middle East. Kellogg reminded the opposition group that then-President Trump walked away from the Iran nuclear deal during his first term, even with opposition from those who served in the first administration.

IRAN REGIME UNDER ‘IMMENSE PRESSURE’ AMID INCOMING TRUMP ADMIN POLICIES, REGIONAL LOSSES, ECONOMIC WOES

“For the United States, a policy of maximum pressure must be reinstated, and it must be reinstated with the help of the rest of the globe, and that includes standing with the Iranian people and their aspirations for democracy,” Kellogg said.

Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, during his first term in 2018 and reapplied crippling economic sanctions. While some, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, applauded the move, the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany had urged the president to remain committed to the deal.

The remarks, made just days before Trump is set to take office for his second term, are yet another signal of how a second Trump administration will face the threat posed by Iran in a new environment with much of the Middle East embroiled in conflict since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel. 

IRAN EXPANDS WEAPONIZATION CAPABILITIES CRITICAL FOR EMPLOYING NUCLEAR BOMB

An Iranian military truck carries surface-to-air missiles past a portrait of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a parade on the occasion of the country’s annual army day on April 18, 2018 in Tehran, Iran. (ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

“The beginning of the end of Iran’s primacy began, ironically, a year ago, on 7 October,” Kellogg said.

Kellogg noted that pressures applied to Iran would not only be kinetic or military force, but must include economic and diplomatic as well.

Attendees at the Paris meeting From left: John Bercow, former Speaker, British House of Commons, Hyhoria Nemyria, former deputy prime minister, Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, former prime minister, Ukraine, Liz Truss, former prime minister, United Kingdom, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, Gen. Keith Kellogg, special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Yanez Yanša, former prime minister of Slovenia, Gen. James Jones, National Security Advisor to President Obama, former NATO commander, Ola Elvestuen, Member of Norwegian Parliament, Minister of Climate and Environment of Norway (2018-2020), Gen. Todd Wolters, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe. (Siavosh Hosseini, The Media Express)

Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the Iranian opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), told the event that the fall of Syria’s longtime dictator, Bashar al-Assad, provided a unique opportunity for Iranians to remake their own future.

“Khamenei and his IRGC were unable to preserve the Syrian dictatorship, and they certainly cannot preserve their regime in the face of organized resistance and uprising. The regime will be overthrown,” Rajavi said.

ISRAEL EYES IRAN NUKE SITES AMID REPORTS TRUMP MULLS MOVES TO BLOCK TEHRAN ATOMIC PROGRAM

Rajavi said it was a decisive moment in the history of Iran. The National Council of Resistance of Iran, according to Rajavi, has a path forward for a democratic Iran, which includes a step-by-step process after the overthrow of the current regime. A transitional government would be formed for a maximum of six months, and its main task would be to hold free elections for a Constituent Assembly and transfer power to the people’s representatives.

Demonstrators in Iran protesting the regime in 2022. (Credit: NCRI)

“The overthrow of the mullahs’ regime is the only way to establish freedom in Iran and peace and tranquility in the region,” a hopeful Rajavi said.

Kellogg championed these ideas and said a “more friendly, stable, non-belligerent, and a non-nuclear Iran” must be the near term goal and that the United States needs to exploit Iran’s current weaknesses.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baqaei slammed France for hosting what the Iranian government called a “terrorist group” and accused the French government of violating its international legal obligations to prevent and fight terror.