Keep on dreaming if you think you can defend yourself without the US – NATO Chief tells Europe

Keep on dreaming if you think you can defend yourself without the US – NATO Chief tells Europe

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has told Europe it should “keep on dreaming” if it believes 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 while addressing committees of the European Parliament in Brussels on Monday.
 

Rutte warned that European nations would need to raise defence spending to as much as 10 percent if they truly wanted to operate independently, adding that they would also have to develop their own nuclear capability at a cost of 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.
 

His remarks followed a turbulent week for Europe and its Western allies after US President Donald Trump renewed his push for American ownership of Greenland, before later ruling out the use of force to annex the Arctic island during his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
 

Rutte went on to praise Trump for drawing attention to Arctic security, acknowledging that his comments might irritate many lawmakers 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.
 

The NATO chief said there would be two work streams moving forward on the Greenland issue. The first would see NATO take greater collective responsibility for defending the Arctic region, aimed at limiting both military and economic access by Russia and China.
 

The second would involve continued trilateral talks between the United States, Denmark and Greenland. Rutte said he would not be involved in those discussions, stressing that he has no mandate to negotiate on Denmark’s behalf and would not do so.
 

Earlier this month, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeld met with US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington. Rasmussen later described the talks as “constructive,” while noting that a “fundamental disagreement” remains.
 

The following week, Trump and Rutte met in Davos, where the US president claimed he had reached a framework for a Greenland deal with the NATO chief. Trump subsequently said he would no longer impose tariffs on European countries that had opposed his ambition to acquire the semi-autonomous Danish territory. While the contents of the framework and Rutte’s precise role remain unclear, Trump’s sudden reversal once again placed the NATO secretary general at the centre of attention.