PARIS — Russia’s war on Ukraine is a security threat for the United States too, NATO chief Mark Rutte said Tuesday in a clear message to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
“Russia is drawing ever closer to its allies Iran, North Korea and China … It’s not only threatening Europe, but also the Indo-Pacific and North America,” Rutte said, speaking before a bilateral meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.
It’s not the first time since Trump’s reelection that Rutte has stressed that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a security matter for the U.S. — and the world. Last week, he said North Korea’s involvement threatens the Indo-Pacific region.
European defense bosses are desperate to keep Trump interested in helping Ukraine against Russia, as the U.S. president-elect — a committed NATO skeptic — has the potential to stop military aid, disengage from Europe and focus on China instead.
Over the weekend, his son, Donald Trump Jr., taunted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about “losing [his] allowance.”
While Trump’s name was not mentioned in Paris, the statements by Rutte and Macron were full of subtext aimed at the U.S. president-elect.
The NATO secretary-general was keen to name-check Iran and China — two countries on which Trump is hawkish — and said that Russia’s sharing of missile technology with North Korea could pose a “direct threat” to the U.S. “We must stand together … In doing so, we have to keep our transatlantic alliance strong,” he said.
Macron said the priority was to ensure Ukraine, Europe and NATO remain “strong.”
In what looked like a warning for Trump — who claimed on the campaign trail that he can end Russia’s war in one day — the French president said: “Nothing shall be decided about Ukraine without the Ukrainians, nor about Europe without the Europeans.”
However, he conceded that Europeans have long outsourced their security to the U.S. — although he added that France had not — and again urged Europeans to become stronger within NATO — what France and Germany call the alliance’s “European pillar.”
“That’s what is expected from the American administration and rightly so,” Macron said, calling again for Europe to boost its own military capability.
Rutte’s visit to Paris followed trips to Berlin and Rome last week as he settles into his new role as NATO chief.
