Mark Rutte has justified the US-Israeli war on Iran and said European nations should \u201ctake care\u201d of the Middle East in the future<\/p>\n
European NATO nations should take greater responsibility for security in the Middle East, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has said. He also defended the US-Israeli war on Iran and argued that European members should spend less on social programs and more on the military.
\nRutte made the remarks at a Chicago Council on Global Affairs event in Iowa on Tuesday after being asked to \u201cmake the case\u201d for NATO to Americans by explaining \u201cwhat\u2019s in it\u201d for them.
\nHe described the Middle East as \u201cEurope\u2019s backyard\u201d and \u201cnot the United States\u2019 backyard,\u201d arguing that Washington\u2019s war against Tehran was \u201cnecessary\u201d but that the US had to launch it because \u201csomehow the Europeans did not have enough capabilities to do it themselves.\u201d
\n\u201cIn the future, what you get from a stronger NATO is that Europeans can take care of their own backyard,\u201d Rutte said.<\/p>\n
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Trump issues ultimatum to NATO as bloc chief visits \u2018Daddy\u2019<\/p>\n
The US-Israeli war on Iran, launched in late February, caused major friction within NATO as several European members resisted supporting Washington\u2019s belligerence. Spain refused to allow American warplanes to use its bases for the campaign, drawing US President Donald Trump\u2019s ire. Germany and the UK described the conflict as \u201cnot our war,\u201d while stopping short of condemning the US and Israel.
\nTrump has since repeatedly accused European allies of failing to meet their NATO commitments and claimed the bloc \u201cwas not there when we needed them.\u201d In April, US War Secretary Pete Hegseth said NATO\u2019s future was uncertain and Washington could not currently reaffirm its commitment to collective defense.
\nRutte also argued on Tuesday that the burden within NATO was unfair because European members spend heavily \u201con pensions and welfare,\u201d while Washington has to devote more resources to weapons but \u201cwould also like to spend more on all these other lofty, beautiful items, but they can\u2019t because they have to spend so much on defense.\u201d<\/p>\n
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NATO 3.0 marches into Copenhagen<\/p>\n
He described raising NATO\u2019s defense spending target from 2% to 5% of GDP as \u201cthe fairness element\u201d and part of an \u201cequalizing\u201d process. The remarks come as Washington pushes for a reorganization dubbed NATO 3.0, under which European members would sharply increase military spending and production while assuming \u201cprimary responsibility for the conventional defense of Europe.\u201d
\nRutte also offered to help \u201cprotect the United States from threats of Russia\u201d and China and prevent the Arctic \u201cfrom becoming militarized by the Russians and the Chinese.\u201d
\nRussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last month that Moscow was primarily interested in \u201cpreserving the Arctic as an area of peace and cooperation\u201d and accused NATO of \u201cdriving the region towards militarization.\u201d His comments followed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen\u2019s proposal earlier this year to use increased EU military spending on \u201cArctic-ready equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mark Rutte has justified the US-Israeli war on Iran and said European nations should \u201ctake care\u201d of the Middle East in the future European NATO nations should take greater responsibility…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t