The NATO secretary general won the threat of a trade war between the United States and Canada – two founding members of the Western military alliance – as a dispute that could be managed.
Mark Rutte, the former Prime Minister of the Netherlands who was appointed in the first Allied political post last fall, spoke in Brussels on Monday alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer following a meeting between the two.
“I am absolutely convinced that we can face these problems, and there are always problems between the allies,” said Rutte at a joint press conference.
“There are always problems, sometimes larger, sometimes smaller. But I am absolutely convinced that this will not bother our collective determination to maintain our strong deterrence.”
NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, was questioned in Brussels on Monday on NATO allies – including tariff problems between Canada and the United States, as well as tense ties between the Denmark and the United States on Greenland. Rutte said it was a “silly thought” to think that you could manage the transatlantic defense organization without the United States
For an alliance that prides itself on presenting a united front to Russia in recent days – even in the past few weeks – have not been nice.
President Donald Trump ordered the taxation of a 25% rate on Canadian products during the weekend and suggested that he would use “economic force” to absorb Canada as part of the Union . On Monday, he maintained the rhetoric of annexation.
“Look at what I would like to see is that Canada will become our 51st state,” he told journalists at the Oval Office.
“Some people say it would be a long time. If people wanted to play the game properly, it would be certain at 100% that they would become a state.”
The threat of prices was postponed for 30 days on Monday while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Trump agreed on a series of border measures intended to mitigate American concerns concerning the flow of illegal migrants and fentanyl.
Separately, before its inauguration of the second mandate, Trump raised a desire for his first mandate in the appendix Greenland, a frozen and semi-autonomous island of the North America of North America which belongs to Denmark. The president recently spoke with Danish Prime Minister and even Trump himself conceded that the conversation went badly.
The president also threatened to impose prices on European countries.
Encourage attacks against allies
While he presented himself to his functions almost a year ago, Trump launched a large against allies who do not respect both percent of the reference to expenditure of raw interior products, saying that he would encourage “Russia to attack members who had not complied with their financial obligations. Later in the campaign, he described the remark as a form of negotiation to ensure that the allies get up.
Canada is one of the countries that – despite the political hectors – do not reach the objective. A promise to reach it by 2032 was a last -minute decision at the Washington summit in July, and Canada is now working to speed up your calendar.
Trump has a long history of complaining about NATO, accusing members of not having gained their weight on military spending and of taking into account globally for granted that they can count on the United States for their defense.
Rutte said on Monday that any notion of European defense strategy without the United States would be a “silly thought”.
Steve Saiman, a political scientist who owns the president of Paterson in the international affairs of the University of Carleton, said that he thought that the trade war between the United States and Canada will have a deep impact on the allies.
“They will wait for their turn,” said Saiman.
“If the United States is ready to cut his own arm to spit venom to Canada, when he will do to the countries on which he has less dependence?”
The fact that the Trump administration aims at Canada and Denmark is also important because the two countries were “ready to bleed for the United States in Afghanistan,” he said.
If Washington intimidates these countries, said Saiman, it becomes more difficult for them to follow the example of the United States in the future.
A large part of what is happening is unprecedented and Saiteman is certainly pessimistic about the future of NATO, which has recently expanded to include Finland and Sweden.
He can now imagine that the United States does not come with the help of its allies – or withdrawing squarely.
Saiteman said he “had never thought NATO would end in this way”.
There are winners with all these dissensions, he added.
“Traditional opponents of the United States are very, very happy at the moment,” he said.
“They do not know exactly what threats will be followed, but Iran, North Korea, Russia, China is great, excellent news for them. Because the division between Western countries is what ‘They want, and Trump gives it is on a set.
