Washington, June 25 (AHN) NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte credited President Donald Trump with driving a sharp increase in defence spending across the alliance, saying European allies and Canada were investing hundreds of billions of dollars more in security while creating thousands of jobs in the United States.

Standing alongside Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday (local time), Rutte used a series of charts to argue that the President's sustained pressure on allies had transformed NATO's approach to defence spending.

"The Trump trillion shows you the increase Europeans and Canadians are paying into defence since you took office in 2017," Rutte said.

He said European allies and Canada had committed an additional "$1.2 trillion" in defence spending during Trump's two presidencies.

According to Rutte, the effect of Trump's current term alone was already evident.

"When you look at the effect of Trump 47... You see almost $140 billion extra spent on defence by the Europeans and the Canadians."

He added that spending would rise by another "$120 billion" this year, bringing the increase over two years to "over $250 billion."

"I can assure you this is because of Russia, because of the threat, but I'm also absolutely convinced that you, being president of the United States... [have been] consistently pushing" allies to increase defence spending, Rutte said.

The NATO chief also highlighted the economic benefits for the United States.

He said investments by European companies were supporting "83,000 jobs" in America, while European purchases from US defence manufacturers supported another "112,000 jobs."

"Last year, they spent $54 billion on US defence industrial output. There is now an order backlog of $300 billion," Rutte said.

He argued that expanding defence production would be a central theme of the NATO summit in Ankara next month.

"We can spend as much as we want, but we need the interceptors, the missiles, we need the tanks, we need the artificial intelligence."

Trump welcomed the figures but questioned whether allies were moving quickly enough to meet NATO's new defence spending target.

"The big question is, are they paying the five per cent?" Trump said. "For the most part, they're not paying."

Rutte acknowledged that not every country had reached the target but said progress was accelerating.

"Germany has doubled... its defence spending between 2021 and 2029," he said, adding that Poland, Denmark, the Baltic states and other allies were also making significant increases.

Later, speaking to reporters outside the West Wing, Rutte said the latest spending figures demonstrated that NATO members were delivering on the commitments agreed at last year's summit.

"In one year, we had an almost 20 per cent increase," he said.

He also said Trump's leadership had been instrumental in securing the agreement.

"One of his biggest foreign policy successes in 2025 was the NATO summit... the commitment to spend 5 per cent."

Rutte said the stronger defence relationship was benefiting both sides of the Atlantic.

"There is now a fair deal," he said, noting that European investment and defence purchases were supporting "close to 200,000 jobs" in the United States.

NATO leaders agreed at last year's summit that allies would work towards investing 5 per cent of GDP annually on defence and security by 2035, with annual national plans tracking progress. The alliance says European members and Canada have accelerated defence spending following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and amid growing security challenges.