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Donald Trump has done NATO a favour by forcing allies to commit to spending 5 pc GDP on defence, according to Secretary General Mark Rutte in comment Thursday where he doubled down that US President has helped make the alliance stronger and safer.
Rutte spoke as NATO presented its annual report showing all allies are now paying 2% of GDP, which he claims would not have happened without Trump’s intervention, including laggards Spain, Belgium and Italy, who failed to meet goals for decades.
“I don’t believe the whole of NATO would reach 2%by 2025 without the present US administration”, Rutte told journalists at a press conference in Brussels. The new goal, negotiated in a tailor-made summit for Trump last year in The Hague, is 5% of GDP divided in two categories of 3.5% in hard capabilities.
Rutte insisted that, without Trump, NATO would not have committed to what he described is an ambitious but absolutely necessary spending target. Rutte spoke at NATO HQ in Brussels to mark the release of the alliance’s annual report for 2025.
The report finds Russia remains the most “significant and direct threat to our security and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area” while noting that the “brutal war of aggression against Ukraine is backed by China, North Korea, Iran and Belarus.”
The former Dutch prime minister has often come under fire in Europe for what is perceived as being too accommodative to President Trump and uncritical of US decision-making to the detriment of the rest of the alliances.
In the press conference that followed, Rutte was forced to answer questions about the reliability of the US as the alliance’s most influential partner following threats to grab Greenland from fellow ally Greenland and the ongoing war with Iran.
Rutte appeared supportive of the ongoing militarily operation led by the US alongside Israeli against Iran, suggesting that “what the United States is doing now is degrading (military) capability” and the alternative would be naive. “And yes, I applaud it,” he said.
NATO is not directly involved in the conflict.
He noted Trump is growing frustrated by the unwillingness – so far – of European allies in responding to his call to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which has come under attack from Iran in retaliation for US-Israeli strikes. The waterway carries one fifth of the global oil supply and has sent energy prices into a volatile spiral as a result.
Rutte insisted key NATO countries – France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands as well as several outside the alliance such as Japan are drafting plans to assist in the region and help open the route. This is “happening as we speak,” he said.
Last week, EU countries suggested at a Brussels summit that any efforts to intervene would be done so while the region was not in the midst of a “hot”, dangerous conflict.
A spokesperson for the UK ministry of defence said United Kingdom and France will chair military talks later this week with over 30 nations to form a coalition to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, without giving further details.
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