NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Friday rejected calls for Europe to shoulder its defence alone, saying the alliance can still count on the US.
The remarks follow the Trump administration’s release of a national security strategy calling on allies to “share the burden” and take “primary responsibility for their regions”, and come after repeated concerns over Washington’s long-term military posture on the continent.
Europe should spend more on its security, but alongside the US, Rutte said in an interview with Germany’s DPA. “I am absolutely convinced that the US fully supports NATO. There is no doubt about that,” Rutte said.
In June, NATO leaders committed to upping their military spending to 3.5% of their GDP, together with 1.5% of broader defence spending.
So far, only Poland and Lithuania are above 4%, while more than half of NATO countries trail around 2%, according to NATO estimates.
Rutte has so far insisted that Washington would remain engaged on the continent, despite the announced redeployment of a combat brigade from Romania back to the US last October.
The move marked the first concrete step under the Trump administration towards an expected rollback of the US military presence in Europe.
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His words also come as European allies wait for the US’s upcoming Global Posture Review, which is set to shift resources away from Europe to the Indo-Pacific region. The US has also halted military support to Ukraine since March, leaving Europeans filling the gaps.
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