"Western investors are ‘stupid’ to shun arms industry" (NATO official)
Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, chair of the alliance’s military committee, believes the financial world really needs to invest in defence companies.
In an interview with Financial Times, the NATO senior official argues that ‘western investors are “stupid” if they do not invest in defence companies’. He therefore denounces the reticence regarding defence investments among credit rating agencies, banks and pension funds.
“The lack of strategic thinking is sometimes astonishing... It’s not enough for businesses to just look at their next quarter,” said Bauer. “For a large number of business people, [the security threat] is still a sort of far away thing. But it’s not.”
‘Defence is not a cost,’ says Bauer. ‘It is an investment. And that is what needs to change in the minds of a lot of people. It doesn't seem to be an automatic connection in the minds of investors and credit rating agencies.’
By the way, the Dutch major does not expect world wars in the next few years, but does argue that ‘regional wars, as we see them now, are probably part of our near future’.
(FVDV for Tagtik/Source: The Financial Times/Illustration: Unsplash)