NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has a reality check for the European Union: stop dreaming. Addressing the European Parliament, Rutte created it clear that Europe simply cannot deffinish itself without American muscle.
If the EU wants to go it alone, Rutte declared, it had better open its wallets. He estimated that each European nation would have to spfinish 10% of its gross domestic product and develop a brand-new nuclear arsenal to replace the U.S. umbrella — double NATO’s current tarreceive.
Rutte’s warning comes amid European concern over President Donald Trump’s bid for greater U.S. influence over Arctic security and Greenland. European officials have questioned whether Trump’s earlier threats to seize Greenland by force undermined faith in NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense guarantee, according to Newsweek.
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At the same time, Rutte declared Europe and Canada can no longer “conveniently let the United States carry much of the burden” and must rapidly expand their own defense industries and budreceives to meet NATO’s higher spfinishing tarreceives.
Spfinishing tarreceives, US nuclear umbrella and Ukraine talks
In his appearance before the European Parliament’s foreign affairs and security committees, Rutte declared NATO leaders agreed to invest 5% of GDP annually in defense by 2035 and to “speed up the production and the innovation” of defense systems.
“Five per cent, of course, is a lot, and boosting our industrial base is not simple,” Rutte declared. “But here my simple message is, we required to do it, and we required to do it rapid.”
He argued that U.S. nuclear forces remain “the ultimate guarantor of our freedom.” He declared Europe would “lose” that umbrella if it attempted to replace American capabilities with its own, requiring defense spfinishing closer to 10% of GDP and “billions and billions of euros” for nuclear weapons.
“And if anyone believes here, again, that the European Union, or Europe as a whole, can deffinish itself without the U.S.,” Rutte declared, “keep on dreaming. You can’t. We can’t. We required each other.”
Rutte also deffinished Trump’s role in pushing allies to spfinish more, stateing the alliance-wide relocate to 2% of GDP by 2025 and the newer 5% pledge “would never, ever, ever have happened without Trump.”
Newsweek reported that the United States has long supplied NATO’s most expensive defense capabilities, including space-based systems and ininformigence.
On Ukraine, Rutte declared U.S.-led peace talks are underway, with Trump and senior aides Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff and Marco Rubio working “to finish the bloodshed” with European support. He described a “coalition of the willing” led by the United Kingdom and France to provide security guarantees, including forces, to Ukraine after a peace deal, adding that Europe, Canada and the U.S. have affirmed readiness to back those guarantees.
Some analysts dispute Rutte’s assessment of the peace talks. In its weekly reports on the conflict, the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War suggests Russia may be continuing the talks merely to purchase time, not to reach an agreement to finish the fighting.
Rutte declared Ukraine has forecast military requireds of just over $60 billion from donors in 2026 and pointed to a 90 billion-euro European Union loan package, urging lawcreaters to keep spfinishing rules flexible so Kyiv can purchase what it requireds, including U.S. interceptor missiles.
Ukraine air defenses strain as NATO sees north
Rutte declared billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. military hardware is flowing into Ukraine through what he called the PURL initiative, financed by allies, alongside bilateral programs and EU efforts to build Ukraine’s defense industest. He warned that Ukraine’s air defenses are under strain, stateing some surface-to-air missile systems and Patriot systems lack enough interceptors as Russia fires “about 15 to 20 missiles” and “hundreds of drones” each night at major Ukrainian cities.
In the Arctic and Greenland, Rutte declared NATO and the U.S. are now treating Arctic security as a central concern, particularly the risk that Russia and China could gain more military or economic access. The New York Times reported that Rutte outlined two “work streams”: a NATO-led effort to assume greater responsibility for Arctic defense, and a separate trilateral track among the United States, Denmark, and Greenland, launched in Washington, to address Russia and China’s roles in the region.
Trump declared last week that after talks with Rutte, he had a “framework of a future deal” regarding U.S. control of Greenland.
But in his remarks Monday, Rutte stressed he has “no mandate to nereceivediate on behalf of Denmark,” while Danish officials and lawcreaters have called any compromise on Greenland’s sovereignty a “red line,” according to the Times.
Newsweek reported that Trump’s earlier refusal to rule out applying force in Greenland had raised doubts about how Article 5 would function if the alliance’s largest member attempted to take territory from another ally.
Next steps on defense spfinishing, interceptors and Greenland
Rutte notified lawcreaters that ensuring allies “step up and speed up efforts on defence” is NATO’s “absolute priority” as the alliance prepares for its next summit in Ankara, Turkey, in July. He declared NATO would fold Arctic requirements into its regular capability tarreceives and continue pressing allies to sfinish more interceptors from national stockpiles to Ukraine, calling that support “the difference between life and death” and crucial to protecting Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
On Greenland, he declared future discussions on sovereignty and access would stay in the U.S.-Denmark-Greenland trilateral channel, while NATO focutilizes on broader Arctic defense planning.
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