WARHAMMER23 Jan 2025 09:02
the head of nato has said “crazy” ethical investing rules are thwarting europe’s efforts to ramp up defence spending.
mark rutte, general secretary of the transatlantic military alliance, said that finance companies were withholding money from defence companies after effectively putting them into the same category as drug dealers and pornographers.
he blamed esg (environmental, social and governance) rules, which are used by many big banks, asset managers and pension funds to decide where to invest savers’ money.
speaking at a side event in the world economic forum in davos, switzerland, mr rutte said: “we still are not able to explain to the pension funds, to the banks, the difference between illicit drugs and pornography on the one hand and spending on our collective defence on the other.
“and somehow it’s all the same basket. this is crazy, but this is one of the reasons why i’m trying to reach out to the one billion people living in nato territory and asking them: go to your banks and your pension funds and tell them that you want to be defended and you want them to spend more.
“and that it is crazy that somehow we only have these nice little projects connected to the [united nations] millennium goals.”
the millennium goals are a set of eight targets for “sustainable development” agreed by the un in 2015, which include promoting gender equality, eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, and reducing child mortality.
mr rutte said: “first of all, we have to make sure we can fight the russians if they attack us.”
he was supporting remarks by françois michel, chief executive of belgian defence manufacturer john ****erill, who claimed that esg risked “destroying the european defence industry”.
mr michel said: “clearly there is an issue with the esg regulations on the financial side because, whatever the regulations we have in europe in general, finance has been pushing the defence industry to sit apart from civilian infrastructure and from civilian activities.
“this is destroying the european defence industry, this is something we absolutely need to solve, and i fully agree with the fact that public spending is not the only answer.
“private capital has to be able to flow efficiently between savings and companies.”
the comments are the latest warning that esg is having disastrous consequences for europe’s defences.
earlier this month, admiral rob bauer, chair of nato’s military committee, claimed that “stupid” investors were failing to play their role in the collective defence of society while also missing out on potentially large returns.
since russia launched an attempted invasion of ukraine in 2022, nato member states have been ploughing money into arms as part of efforts to rebuild their own capabilities and support kyiv’s warfighting efforts.
however, mr rutte warned that arms production in china and russia was dramatically outpacing the us an
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