Mark Rutte: Highlight on NATO chief after Trump’s Davos about-face

[ad_1] Just some days in the past, European leaders had been scrambling to answer US President Donald Trump’s increasingly aggressive rhetoric about taking control of Greenland , and bracing for an avalanche of insults as he arrived to talk on their house turf.

As anticipated, Trump slammed European officers on a wide range of points, as he spoke at Davos in the Swiss Alps . However he additionally dominated out utilizing pressure to annex the Danish territory he covets, decreasing the temperature on a problem that threatened the way forward for the NATO navy alliance.

He then went one step additional in a gathering with NATO chief Mark Rutte – saying afterward that they’d reached an settlement on a doable deal on Greenland, and that he would no longer impose tariffs on European nations against his ambitions to amass the Arctic island.

It’s not but clear what’s included within the framework, or Rutte’s precise position within the negotiations. However Trump’s gorgeous about-turn has as soon as once more shone the highlight on the NATO secretary general , who has emerged as a pivotal determine for a frazzled Europe struggling to get by means of to the US president.

At first look, they make an unlikely pair. Rutte, a mild-mannered technocrat, is the Netherlands’ longest-serving prime minister, having concluded a 14-year tenure that displays his pragmatism and talent to forge consensus on thorny points. He’s additionally identified for his easygoing, relaxed picture, using a motorbike to work even when operating the nation.

Trump, in the meantime, is a former actual property mogul and TV persona identified for his unorthodox strikes and a bent towards unilateralism – traits which have upended world politics for a lot of the previous decade.

However their relationship goes again years. As Dutch chief from 2010 to 2024, Rutte made a number of visits to Washington, DC, throughout Trump’s first time period, laying the bottom for a attraction offensive that seems to have served him – and the navy alliance he now heads – properly.

The 58-year-old’s most famous act of Trump-soothing diplomacy got here at a NATO assembly final 12 months. After the US president used an expletive in response to hostilities between Israel and Iran, after which the analogy of two kids preventing to explain their lethal battle, Rutte joked in entrance of the world’s cameras: “Daddy has to generally use robust language.”

The trade immediately went viral, making headlines and prompting incredulity from viewers. It seems to have caught with Trump, too – talking at Davos on Wednesday, he stated at one level, “They referred to as me ‘Daddy,’ proper? Final time. A really good man stated, ‘He’s our Daddy.’”

Rutte has publicly praised Trump on different issues – the US strikes on Iran, Trump’s efforts to finish the struggle between Russia and Ukraine, and even the president’s strain marketing campaign on European international locations to step up their protection spending.

The flattery prolonged to their non-public textual content messages – which Trump has shared on social media a number of occasions.

“Mr President, Expensive Donald. What you achieved immediately in Syria is unbelievable,” Rutte wrote in a current message that Trump posted to Reality Social late Monday evening, forward of his arrival in Davos. Rutte ended with a chummy sign-off: “Can’t wait to see you. Yours, Mark.”

Equally, earlier than final 12 months’s NATO summit (scene of the “Daddy” incident), Rutte texted Trump: “You'll obtain one thing NO American president in many years might get accomplished.”

These exchanges have raised eyebrows on his house continent. Rutte has acknowledged these criticisms; at a panel about European protection on Wednesday, he told the Davos audience , “I’m not in style with you now as a result of I’m defending Donald Trump, however I actually imagine we might be comfortable that he's there.”

Many different leaders have tried to earn diplomatic wins by cultivating a private relationship with Trump. Finnish President Alex Stubb and the late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe each bonded with Trump over rounds of golf. French President Emmanuel Macron had additionally fashioned a bromance with Trump – although that seems to now be souring.

Rutte “is aware of that private relationships go a great distance with this administration,” Torrey Taussig, a senior fellow on the Atlantic Council and a former NATO coverage adviser on the Pentagon, told CNN last year.

The Finnish president additionally appeared to nod to this technique final 12 months; he dodged questions on Rutte’s messaging round Trump, however provided: “Diplomacy has so many alternative types.”

And, as obsequious as this strategy could seem to his critics, it will possibly deliver actual positive aspects – as current summits have proven.

Final 12 months’s NATO summit ended with members unanimously agreeing to spice up spending to post-Chilly Battle highs, a coverage swap credited to Trump.

And this week’s Davos discussion board could have averted a doable commerce struggle between Europe and the US, which had spooked inventory markets and raised existential fears about NATO’s future.

Particulars on the Greenland framework are scant. However Rutte didn't suggest any “compromise” on Danish sovereignty throughout his assembly with Trump, a NATO spokesperson advised CNN on Thursday.

And in a Fox Information interview, Rutte stated the talks centered on safety within the Arctic. “We principally mentioned how can we implement the president’s imaginative and prescient on defending, sure, Greenland, however after all this – not solely Greenland – this entire Arctic,” he added.

He advised Reuters he anticipated to see outcomes from this new safety framework later this 12 months, including that it will not divert assets away from Ukraine.

However Europe and NATO usually are not out of the woods but. Though Trump ruled out using military force to amass Greenland in his Davos speech, he reiterated his demand for management over the island.

Negotiations between Greenland, Denmark and the US will “go ahead,” a NATO spokesperson stated; in the meantime, European Union leaders will nonetheless meet for an emergency summit on Thursday.

By way of all this, the Dutchman on the heart of it has stayed tight-lipped – solely saying he’d had a “excellent assembly” with Trump. When pressed for extra info, he once more deferred to the American president.

“Learn the Reality Social publish,” he advised journalists.

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