Trump understands well that NATO membership is part of US defense, Rutte says

Illustrative photo from open sources

US President-elect Donald Trump understands well that NATO membership is part of US defense.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said this at a briefing after inspecting NATO exercises in Latvia.

In particular, he commented on the concerns of allies about Trump's previous statements regarding Article 5 and the responsibility of the military bloc:

— I worked with Donald Trump for 4 years as Prime Minister of the Netherlands. And I have a very good working relationship with him. He will do everything necessary to protect the United States and he understands very well that NATO membership is part of the defense of the United States.

The NATO Secretary General noted that the assistance of North Korean soldiers in Russia's military actions against Ukraine is a direct threat not only to Europe, but also to Japan, South Korea and the continental United States.

— So we are linked in this. In the Pacific and the Euro-Atlantic, we are linked… Russia, China, North Korea, Iran are working together, the US understands this, NATO exists not only to protect Europe and the US, but also to work together to guarantee security in the Indo-Pacific and the Transatlantic. And I look forward to working with Donald Trump. I had a good phone conversation with him last week. We worked as friends when I was prime minister. We will do it again when he becomes the new US president, — Rutte said.

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According to him, the US is an integral part of NATO, since it was they who founded the military bloc.

— They know that this is an integral part of their defence, our defence, our collective defence. When we talk about frontline states, let me be absolutely clear. The Netherlands, France and the UK are frontline states. We are there together with the Baltics, Poland, all the other countries – NATO members. We are all frontline states. There is no frontline state that is closer to Russia or further from Russia. And we need the US, and the US needs us. We need each other to work on this, — Rutte says.

The secretary general noted that it was Trump who, since 2016, had been pushing NATO allies to spend more on defence. According to Rutte, Latvia, for example, has moved up to 3.5%. In total, the EU and NATO now spend 2%.

— And we need to do more. We need to increase industrial production. We need the US for all this, and the US needs us. We are together in NATO – all for one and one for all, Rutte noted.

BAGNET recalls that earlier NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that he expects newly elected US President Donald Trump to push the allies in the military bloc to increase defense spending.

Prepared by: Sergey Daga