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New NATO Chief Pledges More Spending on Defense

By Stefan J . Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

BRUSSELS (Worthy News) – The new chief of the NATO military alliance has declined to say whether Ukraine is winning the war against Russia, which invaded the country in February 2022.

However, Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the alliance had already provided Ukraine billions of dollars in military aid.

Although some of these weapons can reach deep inside Russia, the 57-year-old former Dutch prime minister denied that a nuclear war was “imminent.”

Rutte, who is used to the infamous Dutch “polder model” to bring different politicians together, said he could work with former U.S. President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris.

Rutte took over from Jens Stoltenberg as NATO secretary general just weeks before the November 5 U.S. presidential vote, which pits Democrat Harris against Republican Trump, who has been highly critical of NATO.

Rutte praised Trump but refused to share his opinion about Trump’s threats not to defend countries against Russian attacks if they don’t pay up.“I am not going to give an answer to every sentence a politician utters,” he said.

TRUMP EFFORTS

However, he said it was due to Trump’s efforts that some 23 of NATO’s 32 members will currently meet its target of spending at least 2 percent of Gross Domestic Product on defense compared to just three countries a decade ago.

Officials say some of that is down to Trump, but much of it was propelled by Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Rutte said Trump had also been right to push NATO to focus more on China.

He repeated a NATO assertion that China has become a “decisive enabler” of Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine by supplying Russia with important technology.

Hundreds of thousands of people have died in Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War Two.