NATO is deploying eyes in the sky and on the Baltic Sea to protect cables and pipelines that stitch together the nine countries with shores on Baltic waters.

With its powerful camera, the French Navy surveillance plane scouring the Baltic Sea zoomed in on a cargo ship plowing the waters below — closer, closer and closer still until the camera operator could make out details on the vessel's front deck and smoke pouring from its chimney.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte urged member states of the alliance on Monday to step up defence spending beyond their common goal of 2% of national output set a decade ago, saying this was now too low because of new challenges.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has called on Alliance members to increase their defense spending beyond the shared target of 2% of GDP. This target, set 10 years ago, is now considered too low due to new challenges posed by Russia,

NATO said on Tuesday that acts of sabotage carried out across the military alliance over the past years included threats to plot the murder of industry leaders such as the head of German arms maker Rheinmetall.

Sabotage acts in NATO countries in recent years have included threats to assassinate weapons industry leaders, particularly the German arms maker Rheinmetall's CEO Armin Papperger, NATO's Deputy Assistant Secretary-General James Appathurai said on Jan.

James Appathurai, NATO's Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Innovation, Hybrid, and Cyber Technologies, stated that recent acts of sabotage across the alliance included assassination threats against industry leaders,