Rutte: US remains a reliable partner for NATO, no need for EU autonomous defence
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte believes that the European Union does not need to build its defence separately from the United States, despite the discussions that have been sparked by President Trump's policy, that the European Union does not need to build its defence separately from the United States, despite the discussions that have been sparked by the policies of President Donald Trump. He said this in an interview with the German news agency dpa, according to The Public.
According to Rutte, Washington expects more responsibility and increased defence spending from its European partners, but it is about joint actions within the Alliance. He emphasised that the US remains fully committed to NATO and maintains a presence in Europe.
Commenting on the position of the head of the largest faction in the European Parliament Manfred Weber, who called for the formation of a de facto European version of NATO because of doubts about the reliability of the United States, Rutte noted that he had a different assessment. In his opinion, there is no doubt about the US commitment to the Alliance.
Hensek recalled the NATO summit in The Hague, where the allies agreed to increase defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP by 2035. He called this agreement one of Trump's greatest foreign policy achievements.
Rutte also pointed out that NATO is wider than the EU. Although 23 EU countries are members of the Alliance, their combined economy accounts for only about 25 per cent of NATO's total GDP. The remaining 75 per cent is accounted for by non-EU states, including the United Kingdom, Norway, Canada and the United States. Against this backdrop, he called for security discussions not to be limited to the European Union.
Photo: Tagesspiegel
