WATCH: NATO model 'not sustainable', alliance's chief Mark Rutte tells Euronews
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte spoke exclusively to Euronews about the most pressing challenges facing the alliance, including overreliance on the US and Russia's nuclear threat. Watch the interview here.
Published on 01/10/2026 - 17:06 GMT+2
Chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Mark Rutte, warned that the framework under which the alliance of 32 countries operates is "not sustainable".
In an interview at Euronews' Defence and Space summit, he stressed that the United States, which under Donald Trump's presidency has been critical of the alliance and even threatened members, will stay involved in Europe, both in the nuclear and conventional domains.
He argued that the problem was not the US' commitment, but that NATO was not sustainable.
"It is not sustainable that you have a country, the United States, being overly responsible for the defence of 600 million Europeans," Rutte said.
"We are the richest part of the world. And still we are totally overdependent on a country so far away. That's what we are changing now."
He argued that President Trump "only hated one element," namely that EU members were not spending enough, and that Europe is now taking responsibility for its own defence.
Watch the interview with Mark Rutte at the Defence and Space summit here.
