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NATO’s new secretary general has warned Donald Trump that the US will face a “terrible threat” from China, Iran and North Korea if Ukraine is forced to sign a peace deal on terms favorable to Moscow.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Mark Rutte said deepening ties between America’s adversaries threatened America, while calling on the president-elect to stick to NATO and continue to support Ukraine.
Rutte highlighted the risks of Russia supplying missile technology to North Korea and money to Iran. Apparently referring to Taiwan, he said Chinese President Xi Jinping “might think about something else in the future if there is not a good deal (for Ukraine).”
“We cannot have a situation where (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un and Russian leader and Xi Jinping and Iran are howling because we reached an agreement that is not good for Ukraine, because in the long term it will be a terrible security threat not only to Europe but also to the USA” , Rutte told the FT in his first interview as head of the Western military alliance.
Rutte said he brought this up to Trump at their meeting in Florida on November 22, as part of an attempt to convince the US president-elect that remain engaged with the Western allies and continue US support to Ukraine.
“Look at the missile technology that is now being sent from Russia to North Korea, which poses a terrible threat not only to South Korea, Japan, but also to the US mainland,” Rutte said he told Trump.
“Iran receives money from Russia in exchange for, for example, missiles, but also drone technology. And the money is used to support Hezbollah and Hamas, but also to direct the conflict outside the region,” he said.
“So the fact that Iran, North Korea, China and Russia are cooperating so closely . . . (it means) these different parts of the world where there are conflicts and politicians have to manage them, they are becoming more and more connected,” Rutte said.
“And there is one Xi Jinping who is watching very carefully what will come of this,” he added, apparently alluding to fears that Xi might be emboldened to use force against Taiwan if Russia is allowed to seize large parts of Ukraine. “Those were the points I made.”
During his presidential campaign, Trump promised to end it war in Ukraine in “24 hours”. He chose former General Keith Kellogg as his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, who called for freezing the existing battle lines and forcing Kiev and Moscow to the negotiating table.
Rutte took office in October with a good record successfully cooperating with Trump during his first presidency. The former Dutch prime minister was an integral part of a 2018 push by NATO allies to spend more on defense to stave off Trump’s threat to withdraw US support for the alliance.
“We have a strong relationship. We liked each other when I was in my previous role when he was president. And I feel we can work on the same basis. And it helps you discover that it’s a genuine pleasure to work together.”
On Tuesday, Rutte will chair a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, where Ukraine’s foreign minister called for an official invitation to join the alliance, something that the US and Germany, in particular, have ruled out in the near future.
The secretary-general said increasing military support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ahead of any potential peace talks was more important than discussing when membership might be offered.
“The most important thing now is to ensure that whenever Zelenskyy decides to enter the peace talks, he can do so from a position of strength,” Rutte said. “That is the number one priority for me now.“
He said that the order of the peace talks and the invitation to NATO membership are “something that the Allies clearly consult with each other; what might be the best next step and how to work on it”.
“But what I always tell them when they ask me: I say, well, that’s all fine and we have to have these discussions, but for the immediate future, the most important thing is that you deliver your military aid to Ukraine, especially air defense, but also offensive systems that they need to wage war,” he added.
