Rutte went on to insist that the EU allow Ukraine to spend part of the bloc’s upcoming €90 billion loan to Kyiv on weapons from the United States, despite a push by some member countries like France to spend the money on the bloc’s own military suppliers.
The comments form part of a broader pattern in which Rutte has insisted that Europe has to keep channels open to the United States, and that the U.S. president remains loyal to the alliance. Washington still has a “total commitment” to the alliance’s collective defense, he said. “The U.S. needs NATO.”
He also credited Trump for getting all NATO countries to boost their defense spending to at least 2 percent of GDP as of last year.
“Do you really think that Spain and Italy and Belgium and Canada would have decided to move from 1.5 to 2 percent … without Trump. No way,” Rutte said.
Without the U.S., defending Europe would cost a fortune, he added.
“For Europe, if you really want to go it alone … forget that you can ever get there with 5 percent,” Rutte said, referencing a pledge by NATO allies to ramp up their defense spending to 5 percent of GDP by 2035. “It will be 10 percent,” he argued, and cost “billions and billions of euros” to replace America’s nuclear deterrent.