The NATO general secretary, Mark Rutte, stressed on Tuesday that the United States under the presidency of Donald Trump is still committed to the alliance, and has asked the European members of the transatlantic organization to stop worrying about that issue and focus on preparing investment plans, strengthening the defense industry and supporting Ukraine.
“My message to my European friends is that they stop worrying so much. It starts to ensure that you make investment plans, that the industrial base works, that support for Ukraine follows high levels. Fortunately, it is still today,” Routte said in an organized forum before.
“That is what they should work (Europeans), and stop worrying about the United States. They are there. They are with us,” added former Netherlands Prime Minister. He has stressed that the United States continues with NATO, and has spoken of a “total” commitment of the US president and the high leaders of the American country with the transatlantic organization.
However, he has also admitted that Washington has the expectation of the current situation in which Canadians and Europeans “do not spend enough” in defense. “(Washington) wants us to match what the United States is spending,” he said.
On the new target of defense spending that allied leaders are scheduled to support this Wednesday (5% of the GDP broken down into 3.5% dedicated to pure military investment and another 1.5% for safety -related investments), Routte has assured that the United States “basically” reaches it when they look at what they allocate to the “central” investment already related to security and defense.
In any case, he has acknowledged that the main argument for Europeans and Canadians to raise defense spending is not to match what Washington invests, but that “real reason is Russian threat.”
On the other hand, he stressed that if allies are not able to deal with the situation in the Middle East and Ukraine “at the same time, they should not devote themselves to politics and defense at all if they are only able to manage an issue at the same time.” “I don’t think that is too much for us,” he said.
He has also considered “fair” that European and Canada allies assume a greater proportion of support for Ukraine. Rutte has admitted that he cannot predict “when peace will happen” in Ukraine, but has praised the US president, Donald Trump, for “breaking the dead point.”
“When he assumed power, the dialogue with the president (Russian, Vladimir) Putin began, and I always thought that it was crucial. And there is only a leader who could break the dead point, and had to be the US president, because he is the most powerful leader in the world, and leads 25% of the world’s GDP, and has the most powerful army in the world,” he said.
“That he (Trump) broke the dead point was very important. That does not mean that we will get an agreement immediately. It will take time,” he continued. He also considered that Russia did not take the recent conversations that occurred in Istanbul, but has celebrated that Ukraine sent a high -level team there. “Hopefully serious conversations begin in the near future,” he said.
