By Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte is set to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday, seeking to ease tensions over the Iran war and U.S. threats to draw down troops in Europe ahead of a pivotal NATO leaders summit in July in Ankara.
Trump, a longtime NATO critic who has called the alliance a "paper tiger," has been angered by its reluctance to support the U.S. in the Middle East conflict or help reopen the Strait of Hormuz after
a U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28 disrupted the major oil shipping route.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week berated "free-riding" allies at a NATO meeting and announced a six-month review of U.S. troop deployments in Europe that could result in some reductions of American forces. That followed a decision by the U.S. to shrink the pool of U.S. military capabilities available to the alliance in a crisis, leaving members grappling with how to fill gaps. One of Rutte's primary roles since Trump's election in November 2024 has been managing the president's hostility toward the alliance and preventing tense moments, including Trump's push to acquire Greenland, from spiraling into a lasting crisis.
Wednesday's meeting is likely to follow that pattern.
"I expect he is trying to get on the same page with Trump to make sure that the NATO summit is a success or not a wipeout," said Stephen Wertheim, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington-based think tank.
"The NATO summit carries a potential for significant risk because Trump is upset and erratic, and even if Rutte comes and thinks he has an understanding with Trump, who knows what two weeks later will bring," Wertheim said.
Tensions have escalated in recent months. After NATO allies refused to back Trump's Iran campaign, which he began without prior consultation, Trump openly questioned whether the U.S. should stand by NATO’s mutual defense pact and said he was considering leaving the alliance.
Months earlier, the U.S. president laid claim to Greenland, an autonomous territory belonging to fellow NATO member Denmark. Rutte steered the fraying transatlantic alliance back from the precipice, reinforcing his reputation as a "Trump whisperer."
Rutte, in an interview on Tuesday with Fox News, described the incidents of some NATO members denying U.S. basing and overflight rights for war-related activities as "isolated", saying hundreds of U.S. planes took off from U.S. bases across Europe to support Washington's war, which he said he would convey to Trump on Wednesday.
"We will also zoom out from this to this bigger picture of what he is doing for NATO," Rutte said, adding that members were ramping up their defense spending and that he would be revealing those "huge" numbers on Wednesday.
SUMMIT PREPARATIONS
Rutte's visit is part of the final preparations for the July 7-8 summit in Ankara, NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said.
The summit "will focus on how Allies are delivering on the commitments made last year at the NATO Summit in The Hague, including on increasing defense investment, expanding defense industrial production, and continuing support for Ukraine," Hart said.
The NATO alliance is under unprecedented strain, with some European countries concerned that Washington may withdraw outright, which would be an extraordinary move that would throw into question the future of the alliance. Trump has in the past threatened to do that.
Rutte is also expected to meet with members of Congress. His visit comes as the United States believes there is an "unhealthy co-dependence" by Europe on U.S. forces.
Still, Rutte has maintained strong ties with Pentagon officials, and Hegseth spoke warmly of his leadership at the Brussels event last week.
At last year's summit in The Hague, NATO leaders backed the big increase in defense spending that Trump demanded, pledging to spend 5% of GDP on defense and defense-related measures within a decade. But while some European countries have sharply increased defense spending, others have lagged behind.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Washington and Lili Bayer in Brussels; Additional reporting by Andrew Gray in Brussels; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Nia Williams)
