Nato head Mark Rutte joked about US president Donald Trump\u2019s invasion threat at the Western allies\u2019 first high-level meeting since the peak in the Greenland crisis.<\/p>\n
Asked by press in Brussels on Thursday (12 February) if he was worried Trump might still renew his Greenland menace, Rutte said Nato was a \u201ccoalition of democracies\u201d with various kinds of leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means you will always have debates and discussions and Nato would be boring otherwise \u2026 so I\u2019m not worried\u201d, he joked.<\/p>\n
He also flattered Trump as a peacemaker on Ukraine and made excuses for US defence chief Pete Hegseth\u2019s decision to snub the Nato event due to diary issues.<\/p>\n
Trump was the only man in the world \u201ccapable of breaking the deadlock with [Russian president Vladimir] Putin \u2014 so the US is doing exactly what we need when it comes to Ukraine,\u201d Rutte said.<\/p>\n
Asked why Trump was pressing Ukraine instead of Russia to make concessions in peace talks, Rutte also said: \u201cThis is not fair \u2014 the US is putting every pressure on Russia\u201d.<\/p>\n
He mentioned US sanctions on two Russian oil firms and its sale of air-defences to Kyiv as examples.<\/p>\n
Rutte said Hegseth did not come on Thursday because the US was so big that he must have had other global priorities.<\/p>\n
The US instead sent Elbridge Colby, a Hegseth subordinate, who had in the past advocated cutting US troops in Europe and halting aid to Kyiv.<\/p>\n
But Rutte said Colby was \u201cleading US strategic thinking\u201d and praised his \u201cexcellent speech\u201d in Brussels.<\/p>\n
For his part, Colby told media earlier on Thursday that \u201cEurope should [in future] field the preponderance of the forces required to deter and, if necessary, defeat conventional aggression in Europe\u201d, as the US focused on China instead.<\/p>\n
But he promised \u201cWe will continue to provide the US extended nuclear deterrent\u201d.<\/p>\n
Colby called the new US vision a \u201cNato 3.0\u201d, adding: \u201cThere is nothing anti-European about this \u2026 That is not a retreat from Europe. It is, rather, an affirmation of strategic pragmatism\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2018Appeasement and submission\u2018<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s meeting came after Trump had threatened to seize Greenland by force in January<\/a> and made derogatory remarks about European soldiers in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n He later rowed back, but had still caused serious offence among European leaders and the general public, which stood quite at odds with Rutte\u2019s humour.<\/p>\n Rutte had, additionally, claimed on Thursday that Nato was stronger than before Trump came along, as Trump had coerced allies into spending more on defence.<\/p>\n But for their part, a group of 16 former US ambassadors and Nato commanders also voiced worries on Trump\u2019s attitude<\/a> in an open letter the same day.<\/p>\n \u201cNato is not an act of American generosity \u2026 [but] the cornerstone of United States national security,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n Going back to January, Trump had claimed the US needed Greenland on grounds of new threats to the Danish territory by Russia and China.<\/p>\n But some in Europe feared that he wanted it for an ego trip \u2014 to go down in history for expanding US territory, the same way that Putin wanted to expand Russia.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have the same euphoria [on Greenland] \u2014 Trump is still saying he can do what he wants with the island,\u201d Italian leftwing MEP Danilo Della Valle told Rutte in an EU Parliament hearing<\/a> on 26 January.<\/p>\n Della Valle, and others, also warned that Rutte\u2019s \u201cstrategy of appeasement and submissiveness\u201d, would not deter the US leader.<\/p>\n Greenland war games<\/p>\n