NATO chief says Europe should ‘keep on dreaming’ if it thinks it can defend itself without the US

By Caitlin Danaher, CNN

(CNN) — NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has told Europe it should “keep on dreaming” if it thinks it can defend itself without the support of the United States.

“If anyone thinks here again that the European Union, or Europe as a whole, can defend itself without the US, keep on dreaming. You can’t. We can’t. We need each other,” Rutte said during an address to the European Parliament in Brussels on Monday.

The NATO chief warned European nations they would need to increase defense spending to 10% if they “really want to do it alone,” adding they would need to build up their own nuclear capability, costing billions of euros.

“In that scenario, you will lose the ultimate guarantor of our freedom, which is the US nuclear umbrella. So hey, good luck,” he said.

The comments came after a rollercoaster week for Europe and its Western allies, after President Donald Trump continued to advance his demands for the US ownership of Greenland, before publicly ruling out the use of force to annex the Arctic island during his speech at World Economic Forum in Switzerland’s Davos.

The NATO chief continued to praise Trump for raising the issue of Arctic security, acknowledging his defense of the president would likely irritate many in the room.

“I think he’s right. There is an issue with the Arctic region. There is an issue of collective security, because these sea lanes are opening up, and because the Chinese and the Russians are more and more active,” he said.

Rutte outlined there would be two work streams going forward regarding the Greenland issue. The first would involve NATO taking more collective responsibility for the defense of the Arctic, to prevent Russia and China’s access to the region, both militarily and economically.

The second would involve the continuation of trilateral discussions between the US, Denmark and Greenland. Rutte said he would not be involved in the discussions, adding that he has no mandate to negotiate on behalf of Denmark, and will not do so.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeld met with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington earlier this month. Rasmussen said the meeting was “constructive” but that a “fundamental disagreement” persists.

The following week, Trump and Rutte met in Davos, with the president claiming he had reached a framework for a Greenland deal with the NATO chief, and as a result said he would no longer impose tariffs on European nations that had opposed his ambitions to acquire the semi-autonomous territory of Denmark. It’s not yet fully clear what’s included in the framework, or Rutte’s exact role in the negotiations, but Trump’s stunning about-turn once again shone the spotlight on the NATO secretary general.

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