Brussels: NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Wednesday urged European countries to increase their defense spending in anticipation of the incoming term of US President-elect Donald Trump. Rutte emphasized the need for heightened military budgets following a NATO foreign ministers meeting, signaling concerns over future deterrence capabilities. According to Qatar News Agency, Rutte highlighted that the current benchmark for defense spending would not suffice to maintain effective deterrence over the next five years. A decade ago, NATO leaders agreed on a target for member states to allocate two percent of their GDP to military budgets. However, many of the alliance's members have yet to achieve this goal, with only a third currently meeting the stipulated targets. During his first term, Trump was vocal about his dissatisfaction with US allies who failed to reach NATO's defense budget benchmarks. He issued warnings that the US might withhold defense support from countries not fulfilling their financial comm itments to the alliance.