NATO’s Secretary General Mark Rutte has visited president-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
According to The Associated Press, the two men met on Friday “for talks on global security.”
“They discussed the range of global security issues facing the alliance,” a statement from NATO said, without giving details.
Rutte also met Trump’s pick as national-security advisor, Rep. Michael Waltz, and other members of his national-security team.
Rutte was quick to congratulate Trump on his election victory, expressing his keenness to work with the president-elect and saying that “his leadership will again be key to keeping our alliance strong.”
The meeting comes at a time of unprecedented tension between NATO and Russia as a result of the ongoing war in Ukraine. The US and Britain, and now France, have given Ukraine permission to use long-range weapons for deep strikes inside Russia. Russia, in turn, has responded with a display of force, firing hypersonic ICBMs into Ukraine, in a demonstration of its potential nuclear capabilities.
Trump is well known as a trenchant critic of NATO. During his first term, he didn’t hesitate to remind NATO members of their obligations, and he even threatened not to defend NATO members that didn’t pull their weight in terms of defence spending.
In his second term, Trump is again expected to tell NATO members to spend more. He is also expected to attempt to bring the war between Russia and Ukraine to a swift end.
During the campaign, Trump’s running-mate JD Vance even floated the possibility of the US withdrawing support for NATO if European nations continue to encroach on freedom of speech and persecute their citizens.
