Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said  it would be a “serious mistake” to cut the defense budget in the midst of an international standoff with Russia, The Hill reports.  

Said Gates: “I think that cutting the defense budget in significant ways right now is a serious mistake. When we’ve cut the budget before at the end of the Cold War, at the end of Vietnam and other times, it’s been because we thought the world was going to be safer place.”  

He added: “No one can make that case right now. You look at the situation in Ukraine and our relationship with Russia, you look at the tensions between China and Japan in the South China Sea, you look at Iran and North Korea. These guys are operating on the 20th century model of nation states, boundaries matter, strategic interests matter.”