NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has said Europe’s heavy reliance on the United States for defense is unsustainable, urging European allies to take greater responsibility for their own security.
Speaking at Euronews’ Defense and Space Summit in Brussels on Sept. 30, Rutte said Washington would maintain both its nuclear and conventional military role in Europe.
“It is not sustainable that you have a country, the United States, being overly responsible for the defense of 600 million Europeans,” he said.
Rutte described Europe as the world’s richest region and said it needed to reduce its dependence on a country so far away.
He argued that U.S. President Donald Trump’s criticism of NATO centered on allies’ insufficient defense spending, adding that Europe was now taking more responsibility for its own defense.
