Any assumptions that NATO can exist without the United States do not work for many reasons.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stated this during a joint press conference with UK Prime minister Keir Starmer in Brussels on February 3, 2025.
“The assumptions that you can run NATO without the U.S. is for so many reasons a silly thought,” Rutte said. He further highlighted the geopolitical significance of the situation in Ukraine, noting that it is not merely a bilateral issue between Ukraine and Russia but a broader geopolitical matter involving countries like China, North Korea, and Iran, all of which are connected to Russia.
“So this is a geopolitical thing playing out at the moment. And therefor Ukraine must prevail not only for Ukraine’s sake first of all but also because of the geopolitical impact and for NATO as a whole,” Rutte stressed.
He also pointed out that NATO’s collective potential is twenty times greater than Russia’s economy, enabling the Alliance to defend its collective territory, including that of the United States.
Source: Assumptions that NATO can exist without U.S. not working – Rutte
