BRUSSELS, March 5 (Reuters) – NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told Reuters on Thursday the alliance was vigilant and ready to defend every inch of its territory after Iran fired a ballistic missile towards NATO member Turkey.
Rutte also addressed France’s shift in nuclear doctrine and responded to criticism from some over the way he lavishes praise on U.S. President Donald Trump.
Here are highlights from the interview.
ON SHOOTING DOWN OF BALLISTIC MISSILE HEADED FOR TURKEY
“NATO air missile defence was able to take it out. So that was very important. It also shows you, I think, clear evidence that we, with a 360-degree approach, will defend every inch of NATO territory. Our military are constantly on it. But of course, this was serious and absolutely condemnable.”
ON THE RISK OF NATO BEING DRAWN INTO MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT
“Article 5, I think, is not in order here. Nobody’s talking about Article 5. And the most important thing is that our adversaries have seen yesterday that NATO is so strong and so vigilant, and even more vigilant, if possible, since Saturday because of the situation, of course, in the Middle East.”
ON TRUMP’S DECISION TO STRIKE IRAN
“We know that Iran was close to getting its hands on a nuclear capability, a missile capability, which would be a threat, not only to the Middle East, and of course, to Israel, and potentially it would be life-threatening to Israel, but also a threat to Europe.”
“Clearly, NATO is not itself involved here. NATO allies are providing key enabling support. What we see here is that NATO, in that sense, is also this power protection projection platform for the United States. Because without European allies, the U.S. would have found it very difficult to launch this campaign against Iran.”
ON U.S., ISRAEL GOALS IN IRAN
“I think there is widespread acknowledgement and agreement that at least we have to be sure that going forward, Iran, this republic, is not able again, to pose (a) death threat to its neighbours, to Israel, the Middle East, to Europe.”
“From my conversations with senior American military and political leaders, it’s my absolute sense that they know where they are going.”
ON UKRAINE AND RUSSIA
“Iran was one of the key supporters of the Russian war effort against Ukraine — totally unprovoked, this crazy war which started in 2014 and then the full-scale invasion in February 2022.”
“What we also see now is that Ukraine is already, for some weeks, being able to recapture terrain, territory which the Russians got their hands on before, so that is really good news. We know that the Ukrainians are posing extreme losses on the Russians, months in, months out, many times more than the Russians lost in Afghanistan in the 1980s.”
ON CRITICISM THAT HE FLATTERS TRUMP
“Obviously I do believe that the United States is the most powerful and most quintessential ally within the Alliance. If the president of that country is able to get the whole of NATO at 2% last year, and then in The Hague, collectively agreeing to the 5% — I would doubt it, without President Trump, we would have really reached it. And then him now taking this decisive action to take out this capability of Iran … if a president of a country is providing that type of leadership, some praise is warranted.”
ON SPAIN AND TENSIONS WITHIN NATO
“Spain is deployed all over NATO territory. Their troops are part of many forward land forces, many initiatives, many NATO missions. I really want to commend them for that — there is a Spanish Patriot system in Turkey, defending key American interests. Yes, there are also discussions on spending. But this is an alliance of democracies. When there are debates between allies, I always try to stay a bit muted.”
ON MACRON’S NUCLEAR DETERRENCE SPEECH
“I really welcome this. It is leveraging more of what France is doing. However, and we all agree on this, the ultimate, supreme guarantor of our way of life … is, in the end, the United States nuclear umbrella, and that is key.”
“I’m absolutely convinced the U.S. is completely committed to NATO.”
(Reporting by Andrew Gray; Writing by Gianluca Lo Nostro; Editing by Richard Lough and Chizu Nomiyama )
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