NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte held discussions with elected U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida on “global security issues facing the alliance,” according to a spokesperson for the organization on Saturday.
The meeting took place on Friday in Palm Beach, the spokesperson confirmed in a statement.
During his first term, Trump pushed Europe to increase defense spending. Rutte, the former Prime Minister of the Netherlands, said he wanted to meet Trump immediately after his victory in the November 5th presidential election to discuss the growing threat posed by the deepening relations between North Korea and Russia.
“What we see more and more is that North Korea, Iran, and China, as well as Russia, are working together against Ukraine,” Rutte recently said during a European leaders’ summit in Budapest.
“At the same time, Russia must pay for this, and one of the ways is through sending technology to North Korea,” Rutte expressed concern, highlighting that such practices threaten “American soil and the European continent.”
Rutte is considered one of the leaders who maintained a strong relationship during Trump’s first presidential term from 2017 to 2021.
