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NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has rejected proposals for an independent European security architecture, insisting that the EU does not need to break with the US on defense issues, despite calls from senior European politicians.
Manfred Weber, leader of the conservative EPP and its European Parliament Group, had called for a European Army under EU command to be sent to ensure peace in Ukraine.
“I hope that the soldiers with the European flag on their uniforms will work together with their friends in Ukraine to ensure peace,” Weber told German media outlet Funke.
Rutte opposed the proposal in an interview with German news agency dpa published on Thursday.
“I am absolutely convinced that the United States is fully invested in NATO. There is no doubt about it. There was one big expectation. Certainly, the United States will increase spending and Europe will take on more responsibility,” Rutte said.
The NATO chief stressed that strengthening Europe’s defense efforts should not occur in isolation but in parallel with the United States.
“When we talk about Europe and NATO, it’s not just the European Union,” Rutte said, noting that NATO’s 23 EU members account for only about a quarter of the alliance’s total economic product.
US and Europe working together
Mr. Rutte pointed to the common interests of the United States and Europe in the defense of the Arctic and North Atlantic.
“The United States has its own interests in NATO, and that is of course to keep Europe safe, but the Arctic is no different. A secure Arctic is vitally important to the United States, and it can only be protected together by our European and American NATO allies.”
“The Arctic is a big problem. We see Chinese and Russian ships sailing through the Arctic. And protecting the Arctic can only be done by working together as NATO allies in Europe and the United States.”
The NATO Secretary General has warned that Russia could pose a serious threat as early as 2027, according to some intelligence assessments.
“I’m not going to speculate exactly where, when or how. At the end of the day, if there is an attack on NATO, we are all under attack, because that is Article 5, which means that an attack on one is an attack on all,” Rutte said.
“If we do those two things, we will be strong enough to defend ourselves, but President Putin will never try to do that,” he said, referring to maintaining strong support for Ukraine and increasing NATO defense spending.
In an interview on Thursday, Rutte praised Germany’s efforts to achieve defense spending of 3.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2029, ahead of the 2035 deadline agreed at the alliance’s summit in The Hague in June.
He called Germany’s approach “very impressive” and said Berlin was “leading the way” among European allies.
Additional sources of information • AP, DPA
