Mark Rutte, incoming Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), during a transition ceremony at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Tuesday, October 1, 2024. Mark Rutte, the affable and meticulous former Prime Minister of the Netherlands, said he faces a difficult task maintaining the defense alliance as global power.
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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Wednesday welcomed US President Donald Trump's newly inaugurated warning that Russia could face more tariffs and sanctions if it does not end the war in Ukraine.
“I was very, very pleased with Trump's position to impose more sanctions on Russia. We know that the Russian economy is doing terribly badly and sanctions will help,” he told CNBC on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.”
He expressed hope that Europe would now also “increase the intensity” of sanctions in an attempt to “strangle the Russian economy” and reduce Moscow's war budget.
“Trump is right, Ukraine is closer to Europe, but Trump is also right that this is a geopolitical conflict, so I am sure the United States wants it to end with a good and strong agreement,” Rutte added.
Trump said Wednesday that if no deal is reached to quickly end the Russia-Ukraine war, the United States “will have no choice but to impose high taxes, tariffs and sanctions on everything Russia sells to the United States.” and various other participating countries.”
“Let's end this war that would never have started if I were president!” – Trump said on the Truth Social platform. “We can do it the easy way or the hard way, and the easy way is always better.”
Trump has previously boasted that he could end the war in Ukraine “within 24 hours” of being elected and has also threatened to cut military funding to Kiev. Fears have grown in Europe that Ukraine, deprived of finances and weapons, could be pushed into a bad peace deal that includes territorial concessions to Russia.
Rutte said the outcome of any peace deal must be “sustainable,” noting that otherwise Russia's allies, including China and North Korea, would be “high-fiving.”
“We have to get to a point where Russia will never, ever try to occupy one square kilometer of Ukraine again, so it has to be a strong agreement,” Rutte said.
February will mark the third anniversary of Russia's invasion, and while war fatigue is growing among some allies, there is no sign that the war will end soon, with Russia eager to gain and Ukraine to prevent further territorial losses ahead of possible peace talks.
Asked about his current assessment of the war between Ukraine and Russia, NATO chief Rutte said it was “not heading in the right direction at the moment.”
“At the moment it (the war) is not heading in the right direction, (the front line) should be moving east, but it is moving west… We have to change this, we have to change the trajectory of the war,” he said.
Defense spending
Trump's relationship with the Western military alliance was acrimonious during his first presidency, with the Republican leader frequently criticizing NATO member states for failing to meet a 2014 goal of spending at least 2% of GDP on defense each year.
Ahead of his second term, Trump signaled that the thorny debate over military spending – and Trump's belief that NATO members are overly dependent on the US for their security – would be back on the agenda, stating in January that 32 NATO member states countries should contribute even more to defense.
“I think NATO should have 5% (as a target),” he said. “Everyone can afford it, but it should be 5%, not 2%,” he said at a press conference.
US President Donald Trump arrives at the NATO summit at the Grove Hotel in Watford, northeast of London, December 4, 2019.
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Rutte said he agreed with Trump's call for more defense spending among NATO members, stating that countries still not meeting the 2% target, such as Spain, Italy and Canada, “must reach 2% in the coming months.” It should be done this year.”
“Thankfully, thanks to Trump, we increased defense spending during his first term. … but we all have to get to 2%,” he said, adding that Europe must also increase its defense industrial base.
Rutte himself has faced criticism that Dutch defense spending remained below NATO's target of 2% for much of his time as prime minister. Alliance data shows that Dutch defense spending has hovered below NATO's target for 2014–2023, but is estimated to reach 2.05% of the country's GDP in 2024.