The head of NATO on Monday praised President Trump for taking the initiative to pursue an end to the Ukraine war — and knocked Europe for “complaining” instead of getting its “act together.”
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, 58, who has been dubbed the “Trump whisperer,” emphasized the importance of American leadership to ending Russia’s war on Ukraine and suggested that European countries are beginning to step up because of it.
“I have great trust in the American team conducting those talks. Ukraine will be part of those talks, no doubt,” Rutte told Fox News’ “The Story.”
“Europe wants to have a place at the table. Well, I told them, fight yourself a way to the table by coming up with concrete proposals. That is now happening,” he said.
“I absolutely reject that criticism of President Trump’s initiative. I think it is only right that he tries to end this war, and we need American leadership here.”
NATO allies and the European Union huddled at the Munich Security Conference in Germany over the weekend to discuss pressing foreign policy issues, including Trump’s push to end the war in Ukraine.
Rutte, a former Dutch prime minister who took the reins of NATO last year, noted Europe’s concern that it won’t have a “seat at the table” during negotiations.
“What I said to the Europeans in Munich at this famous security conference the last couple of days was, ‘Stop complaining, start acting, get your act together,’ ” Rutte said.
Trump revealed last week that he had separate calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian leader Vladimir Putin about ending the war, which is set to mark its three-year anniversary next Monday.
He indicated that US officials would meet with their Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia this week to discuss a path toward ending the bloodshed. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has already touched down in Saudi Arabia for those talks.
“Last week, I was a bit disappointed that Europeans were saying, ‘Hey, we also have to be at the table,’ and, ‘Why are we not there?’ ” Rutte said. “Now [they are] really starting to dialogue, to strategize how they can support the peace effort.”
Right now, officials are working to hammer out some of the details to a potential peace pact, “including if the US does not have boots on the ground, what will security guarantees look like,” Rutte said.
Trump has tapped retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg as his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia to oversee negotiations.
Last week, he dispatched Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to meet with Zelensky and push for American access to Kyiv’s vast mineral reserves — an idea the Ukrainian leader claims he pitched to Trump during their meeting in September.
Ukraine’s mineral resources would be used to help foot the bill for US military aid to the war-torn ally half a world away. But Ukrainian leaders have rejected Trump’s push for half of their country’s reserves.
The president told reporters over the weekend that he believes Putin “wants to stop” the war and does not intend to seize all of Ukraine.
“That was my question to him, because if he’s going to go on, that would have been a big problem for us,” he said. “Because you just can’t let that happen. I think he wants to end it. And they want to end it fast, both of them.”
During the Munich Security Conference gathering over the weekend, Vice President JD Vance took scathing digs at Europe, accusing its leaders of eroding free speech in their countries and failing to pull their own weight to shore up freedom across the globe.
“The threat that I worry most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, not China, it’s not any other external actor. What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values,” Vance told European leaders Friday.
In Warsaw, Poland, last week, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth similarly put the US’s European allies on notice.
“What happens five, 10, 15 years from now is part of a larger discussion that reflects the threat level, America’s posture, our needs around the globe, but most importantly, the capability of European countries to step up,” Hegseth said.
“That’s why our message is so stark to our European allies — now is the time to invest because you can’t make an assumption that America’s presence will last forever.”
