Rutte promises Trump he will show NATO’s “usefulness” at Ankara summit

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said he intends to convince U.S. President Donald Trump of the alliance’s value at the upcoming summit in Ankara — by appealing to the scale of the event and directly flattering the American leader’s ego.

This came against the backdrop of Trump’s expressed frustration with the bloc’s effectiveness.

Speaking at the Atlantic Council during a visit to the United States, Rutte put forward specific arguments in favor of the significance of the upcoming summit.

“42 countries will take part in the Ankara summit, including partners from the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. The combined size of these countries’ economies exceeds approximately €62 trillion,” Rutte said.

The NATO secretary general called Trump “the most powerful man in NATO” and “the leader of the world.” According to Rutte, the summit should demonstrate that Trump is “the most powerful man in the room” and therefore “the leader of the entire world.”

In his remarks, Rutte repeatedly emphasized that NATO’s European members and Canada are spending hundreds of billions of dollars more on defense than before Trump came to the White House. He also reiterated the point that the Ankara summit “will bring contracts worth tens of billions of dollars.”

Earlier, Trump said that the decision by the governments of the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, France, and Germany not to provide assistance in the war against Iran had disappointed the United States as NATO allies.