Washington DC [US], June 25 (ANI): Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte on Wednesday heaped praise on US President Donald Trump, saying that Iran was getting its hands on nuclear capabilities, which would have been a threat to the whole world.
Rutte, in his meeting with Trump, said that all G7 leaders have applauded the work the US has been doing with regard to Iran.
‘First of all about Iran. I really want to make clear how important it is what you are doing on Iran. This is first of all about the nuclear capability Iran was basically getting its hands on. And that would have been a threat to the region, it would have been a threat to the whole world. This is a country which is exporting chaos, it is exporting terrorism. And they were very near to getting their hands on the nuclear capability. You have seen last week with the G7 all the leaders in the G7 applauding the fact that this nuclear capability has been degraded,’ he said.
Rutte said that the work the US is doing is about the safety of the whole world.
‘This is extremely important. And I just want to make this clear because sometimes people think why was this whole Iran thing going on. This is about security, about safety. This is the leader of the free world taking responsibility beyond the shores of the United States for the rest of the world. And this is what you did. I know there have been debates about whether your allies in Europe were with you enough. I just want to say one thing which is sometimes they were,’ he said.
Rutte said that although Trump had made his annoyance about the NATO members not helping the US enough during the war, about 4,000-5,000 US planes took off from bases across Europe.
‘But when you look at the numbers, four to five thousand US planes taking off from bases in Europe in the six weeks this war took place till the ceasefire took place mid April. Bucharest, the airport in Romania, having to close. It had to close for commercial traffic because they had to make sure that you were able to send the tanker aircraft up in the air. So this is what I know there have been isolated cases about which you are really disappointed. But generally speaking your European allies have been there with you. I really want to make that point. Four to five thousand US planes taking off from European airbases,’ he said.
Rutte also displayed charts showing how Trump has influenced NATO countries to increase their defence spending, and how it’s benefiting US jobs and companies.
‘Now I want to take you if you stay here I go over to these boards here because I want to show you what this president was able to achieve. And I start with this chart. This chart is about the Trump Trillion. The Trump Trillion shows you the increase Europeans and Canadians are paying into defence since you took office in 2017. Trump 45 plus Trump 47. A total of extra spent by the Europeans and the Canadians of 1.2 trillion. When you look at the effect of Trump 47, so the isolated effect of the extra defence spending in 2025 and 2026, you see almost 140 billion dollars extra spent nominal on defence by the Europeans and the Canadians and also this year you will again see an increase by about 120 billion which brings the total in two years of over 250 billion dollars,’ he said.
Rutte added that in total 195,000 jobs being supported by European investment.
‘I can assure you this is because of Russia, because of the threat, but I’m also absolutely convinced that you being president of the United States, being consistently pushing for something which since Eisenhower has not been achieved, which is the Europeans equalizing their defense spending with the United States. This is your evidence. Then when it comes to jobs, look here. In total 195,000 jobs being supported by investment. Investment from European companies into the United States, 83,000 jobs supported by that. 112,000 jobs created by the fact that Europeans are massively about half of all their defense spending when it comes to defense industrial output is spent in the United States. 112,000 jobs. Last year they spent 54 billion dollars on US defence industrial output,’ he said.
Rutte further said that Europe will be spending USD 300 billion on the US over the next couple of years.
‘There is now an order backlog of 300 billion. So 300 billion dollars of defence spending from Europeans buying this in the US over next couple of years which is already on the order book. Last year 54 billion, total now order book 300 billion. Totally almost 200,000 jobs. These are real jobs, real people. Like you had yesterday when you spoke in Pennsylvania, the people behind you,’ he said.
Rutte said that the problem lies in the fact that Europe is not producing enough, and their defence stockpile is to be replenished because of Ukraine war.
‘To get all of this done, we had to increase the defense industrial output. There is a big problem. And the problem is that both in the United States and the Europe we are not producing enough. Our stockpiles have to be replenished because of the war in Ukraine and what we do there and for all the other reasons. You have taken the leadership here. Last week you signed the defense procurement act. You made it possible for companies to work together to be able therefore to ramp up their defense production. You have been very harsh with them a couple of weeks ago. I had one of them over in my office. It was really harsh. I had one of them over in my office. He was still trembling. One of the CEOs. And I said this is good. This is exactly what we need because we need this extra defense output,’ he said.
The visit comes after US Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth last week lashed out at allies during a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels. He announced a six-month Pentagon review of American forces in Europe, as per ABC News. (ANI)
