Mark Rutte Hails Trump's NATO Defense Spending Legacy

Wed Dec 17 2025 21:46:23 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte claims that Donald Trump's push for increased NATO defense spending stands as the most significant achievement of his foreign policy, during a recent BBC interview.

In a recent interview with the BBC, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte characterized Donald Trump's advocacy for higher NATO defense spending as his most substantial foreign policy success, suggesting that it has strengthened the alliance. Rutte noted that NATO members have pledged to invest 5% of their economic output on defense by 2035, in response to the threats posed by Russia. He emphasized the importance of such investments for collective security, especially amidst warnings from NATO officials about potential Russian hostilities against European allies.

Nato countries' pledge to spend 5% of their economic output on defence is Donald Trump's biggest foreign policy success, the alliance's chief has said.

In an interview with the BBC, Mark Rutte said it was thanks to Donald Trump that Nato was stronger than it ever was, adding that Trump is good news for collective defence, for Nato and for Ukraine.

The US leader has harshly criticised European allies for spending very little on defence - even threatening to withdraw US protection if they fail to do so.

The NATO chief has warned that Russia could attack allies within the next five years. Russia's President Vladimir Putin dismissed such talk as hysteria on Wednesday.

I’ve said it repeatedly - it’s a lie, nonsense, pure nonsense, about some imaginary Russian threat to European countries, Putin told defence officials in Moscow.

After Putin launched Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions - Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson. Russia had already annexed Crimea in 2014.

Putin said the goals of what he calls the special military operation would be achieved.

In his interview with the BBC Radio 4's PM programme, the NATO secretary general said it was insane that Putin's pursuit of his historical idea that you want to regain access to Ukraine - or over the entire territory that used to constitute the former Soviet Union - had caused the death or serious injury to 1.1 million of his people.

Mark Rutte praised Trump's efforts to find an end to the war.

US envoys have been conducting intense negotiations with Ukrainian officials over a Trump-proposed peace plan whose initial draft was seen as favouring Russia.

It envisages ceding control of territory in the east of the country to Russia, as well as security guarantees for Kyiv to forestall future Russian aggression.

EU allies who met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a European-led multinational force Ukraine was envisaged to assist in securing Ukraine's skies and supporting safer seas.

Rutte emphasized the increase in military spending by NATO members during their summit in The Hague, stating that if these pledges are not met, NATO would become weaker than Russia in a few years, making the situation extremely dangerous.