Agencies London

NATO members need to increase their air and missile defences by 400 per cent to counter the threat from Russia, the head of the military alliance plans to say on Monday. Secretary-General Mark Rutte will say during a visit to London that NATO must take a "quantum leap in our collective defence" to face growing instability and threats, according to extracts released by NATO before Rutte's speech.

Rutte is due to meet UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at 10 Downing St. ahead of a NATO summit in the Netherlands where the 32-nation alliance is likely to commit to a big hike in military spending.

Rutte has proposed a target of 3.5 per cent of economic output on military spending and another 1.5 per cent on "defence-related expenditure" such as roads, bridges, airfields and sea ports. He said last week he is confident the alliance will agree to the target at its summit in The Hague on June 24-25. At the moment, 22 of the 32 member countries meet or exceed NATO's current 2 per cent target.

The new target would meet a demand by President Donald Trump that member states spend 5 per cent of gross domestic product on defence. Trump has long questioned the value of NATO and complained that the US provides security to European countries that don't contribute enough. "We see in Ukraine how Russia delivers terror from above, so we will strengthen the shield that protects our skies," he plans to say. "Wishful thinking will not keep us safe. We cannot dream away the danger. Hope is not a strategy. So NATO has to become a stronger, fairer and more lethal alliance."