NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte met with US president-elect Donald Trump, their first meeting since the US elections earlier this month. Rutte travelled to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s estate in Florida, on Friday to discuss “global security issues facing the Alliance”, NATO said.
On Friday, Dutch media reported that Rutte had taken a Dutch government plane leased by NATO to the US state of Florida. The plane landed not far from Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s estate in Palm Beach.
NATO spokeswoman Farah Dakhlallah confirmed that information on Saturday. Rutte and Trump “discussed the full range of global security issues facing the Alliance,” she said in a brief statement. No further details of the conversation were given.
Collective threats
Two days after the US presidential election, Rutte had already indicated that he wanted to meet Trump to discuss how NATO could defend itself against collective threats.
“What I am thinking about in particular is how the role that North Korea is now playing in Russia’s war against Ukraine shows how these countries are working together,” he said. “This is a threat not only to the European arm of NATO, but also to the United States.”
Trump has regularly criticised European NATO members for not spending enough on defence. If this does not change, the president-elect has threatened to withdraw US troops from Eastern Europe and even to leave the alliance altogether.
PHOTO © SAUL LOEB, Wojtek RADWANSKI / AFP
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