NATO Chief Says Europe Is ‘Dreaming’ if It Thinks It Can Defend Itself Without U.S.

Mark Rutte, the secretary general of the alliance, told members of the European Parliament that President Trump was “doing a lot of good stuff.”Secretary General Mark Rutte of NATO, right, at the European Parliament in Brussels on Monday.Credit...Nicolas Tucat/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesJan. 26, 2026, 4:46 p.m. ETMark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, warned Europe on Monday that it could not defend itself without the United States in remarks aimed to address the growing worries that the United States and Europe are pulling apart over President Trump’s ambitions for Greenland.“If anyone thinks here again that the European Union, or Europe as a whole, can defend itself without the U.S., keep on dreaming,” Mr. Rutte told members of the European Parliament in Brussels. “You can’t. We can’t. We need each other.”Mr. Rutte’s remarks followed days of anxiety that crested last week after President Trump said in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that he would not seize Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, backing off earlier threats. Mr. Trump used the same speech to belittle Europe, essentially saying that it wouldn’t exist without America.Mr. Trump had also threatened to impose additional tariffs on European countries that resisted his bid to control Greenland, but he backed away from those as well.Mr. Rutte, a former Dutch prime minister, has cultivated a chummy relationship with Mr. Trump, and that has raised some eyebrows in Europe. On Monday, he backed up the American president’s strategic vision for the Arctic and a stronger defense of Greenland.He also defended himself for helping ease Mr. Trump away from his escalating threats and for trying to lead the American president toward a compromise over the island.Denmark’s and Greenland’s leaders have bristled at the notion that Mr. Trump and Mr. Rutte might be negotiating Greenland’s future behind their backs.“Of course, I have no mandate to negotiate on behalf of Denmark, so I didn’t, and I will not,” he said. “That’s up to Denmark to do.”Several members of the European Parliament pressed Mr. Rutte for more information on what exactly he had discussed with Mr. Trump last week and what it might mean for Denmark and Greenland, both of which have strongly rejected the idea of an American takeover.Mr. Rutte wasn’t very specific.He didn’t elaborate on the framework of a deal with NATO over Greenland’s future that Mr. Trump said last week he had reached. That announcement brought immense relief after months of repeated threats, though many across Europe are worried that Mr. Trump could change his mind again.Mr. Rutte said that there were “two work streams going forward” that involved Greenland.ImageNuuk, the capital of Greenland, on Sunday.Credit...Sean Gallup/Getty ImagesOne was talks between NATO allies over a broader Arctic defense plan that would involve Greenland, a gigantic island that lies mostly in the Arctic Circle.The other was a process involving representatives from the United States, Denmark and Greenland that started earlier this month in Washington and is continuing, Mr. Rutte said. Danish officials said that they held a meeting on Thursday in Washington about Greenland, but they declined to share any details.Several Western officials have said that one possible compromise that NATO was discussing was that the United States would gain sovereign status for American bases in Greenland. The United States has kept military forces on the island since World War II, when Nazi Germany seized Denmark and the Danish ambassador to Washington struck an agreement with the United States to defend Greenland.After Mr. Rutte’s discussions with Mr. Trump last week, Danish leaders quickly made clear that any compromise on Greenland’s sovereignty remained “a red line.” Mr. Rutte, who was invited to attend a meeting of the Parliament’s security and defense committee, didn’t comment on the base-sovereignty idea.Several members of the European Parliament asked sharp questions on Monday, including Villy Sovndal, a Danish representative, who said, “We’re not going to give any square meter to any country because of threats.”Throughout his remarks, Mr. Rutte praised Mr. Trump, joking that he knew that might irritate his audience. Mr. Trump’s bombastic speech last week in Davos deeply rattled Europe, especially his assertion, which struck many nations as insulting, that “without us, right now, you’d all be speaking German and a little Japanese, perhaps.”Mr. Rutte’s remarks were more diplomatic. But he did emphasize that, more than 70 years after World War II, Europe was still dependent on American military might. He said that Europe would have to spend far more on defense than it was already spending to field its own formidable nuclear arsenal.“Forget that you can ever get there with 5 percent,” he said, referring to the 5 percent of gross domestic product that NATO members have pledged to spend on defense annually by 2035. “It will be 10 percent. You have to build up your own nuclear capability that cost billions and billions of euros.”And if Europe really did try to go it alone, he added, “Hey, good luck.”He also repeated Mr. Trump’s insistence that China and Russia were becoming a threat to Arctic security.“President Trump is doing a lot of good stuff, I believe — I know, I’m irritating a lot of you again,” Mr. Rutte said.Mr. Rutte said that when it came to Arctic defense, “I think he’s right.”Maya Tekeli contributed reporting from Nuuk, Greenland.Jeffrey Gettleman is an international correspondent based in London covering global events. He has worked for The Times for more than 20 years.SKIP