NATO Secretary General visits United States in preparation for The Hague Summit

On Thursday morning, the Secretary General met with US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon. He also took part in a roundtable discussion hosted by The Heritage Foundation on transatlantic security, burden sharing, and the upcoming NATO Summit in The Hague. Later in the day, Mr Rutte met with President Trump at the White House, as well as with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.

Speaking to media afterwards, Mr Rutte described a very good meeting focused primarily on the upcoming NATO Summit in The Hague as well as ongoing efforts to bring a just and lasting end to the war against Ukraine. He noted the growing consensus around a significant increase in defence spending from European Allies and Canada. “This is necessary to make sure that we stay safe. So this is really a NATO which is stronger, which is fairer, which is also more lethal in terms of being able to defend NATO territory,” he said.