Rutte told advocates of European forces that would be separated from the NATO alliance led by the United States of America to “keep dreaming” and said that Russian President Vladimir Putin would be “delighted” with the idea because it would weaken the armies of European countries.
Addressing the European Parliament in Brussels, Rutte said European countries should continue to take more responsibility for their own security, as Trump demands, but within the transatlantic alliance.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares and European Commission Commissioner for Defense Andrius Kubilius have spoken separately in recent weeks about the possibility of establishing a European army.
While not referring unequivocally to either proposal, Rutte was quick to dismiss the general idea, insisting that Trump and the US remain strongly committed to NATO despite the uncertainty caused by Trump’s demands that NATO member Denmark take control of Greenland.
“I think there will be a lot of overlap and I wish you luck if you want to do that, because you have to find men and women in uniform who are already doing it anyway,” he said, according to Hina.
“It will complicate things. I think Putin will be delighted with that. So think again.”
Rutte told lawmakers that if Europe really wants to be militarily independent, it will cost it significantly more than the five percent of GDP that NATO members have agreed to spend on defense and defense-related activities.
“You have to build your own nuclear capabilities, that costs billions and billions of euros. You will lose, in that scenario, the ultimate guarantor of our freedom, which is the American nuclear umbrella. Well, hey, good luck.”
Also, Rutte said that he agreed with the US president on two “work lines” in order to calm the tensions between the US and the EU.
“In principle, what was discussed last week, which we finally agreed on, are two future work directions: one is related to NATO, which would collectively take more responsibility for the defense of the Arctic,” Rutte told the representatives of the European Parliament.
“So one line of work will be to find the best way to collectively prevent Russia and China from gaining more access to the Arctic region — that’s one line of work, with NATO clearly leading the way,” he added.
Another line of work, in which NATO will not participate, according to Rutte, concerns the continuation of talks between the USA, Denmark and Greenland.
(Vijesti.ba)
