Despite perceived US-NATO tensions, the future of the alliance is being dictated by one country: the United States

The alleged tensions between Washington and NATO were not on display earlier this month during a meeting at the White House between United States president Donald Trump and head of the military alliance, secretary general Mark Rutte.

Instead, far from marking the end of the alliance, the two staked out a “reinvigorated” vision for NATO.

A meeting missing fireworks

Even casual followers of politics expected the March meeting between Rutte and Trump to further emphasise the oft-claimed rifts between Washington and NATO. After all, the US president has made many public claims that member countries of NATO are not contributing their “fair share” of 2% gross domestic product (GDP) to the military alliance. Because of this, the White House has repeatedly warned they would not “protect” countries delinquent in their payments to the military alliance, effectively quashing Article 5 of NATO which ensures collective defence for member countries.

As evident during their recent meeting, Rutte views this approach by the US president as a keen negotiating tactic, rather than an actual threat.

Rutte opened the meeting by noting that Trump in his first term “originated” the idea of NATO members in Europe increasing their funding towards the alliance. The NATO chief further highlighted that results since the start of Trump’s second term in late January have already been “staggering”, with the Germans committing potentially up to “half a trillion” of investment and Britain under Labour leader Keir Starmer also pledging an increase in funding to the alliance.

This isn’t the first time Trump has been praised by a NATO secretary general. Previous Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg similarly thanked Trump for getting member countries to increase funding to the alliance. Rutte himself, known as the “Trump whisperer”, even visited Trump shortly after the US president’s win over Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election last November.

Countering China and Russia in Greenland

One of the most contentious policies of the Trump administration — the annexation of Greenland — also came up during the meeting between Rutte and Trump.

Greenland has become a focus for the Trump administration for two reasons: One, warming climate conditions may open up Arctic shipping routes and, two, Greenland’s rare earth minerals (which have dictated much of Washington’s foreign policy under Trump) could reduce the US’ reliance on China, their perceived adversary, for rare earth minerals.

While Rutte at first seemed hesitant discussing Trump’s plan for Greenland, the brash, businessman-style of the US president seemed to convince the NATO chief on the importance of annexation to the military alliance. After Trump’s highlighting on the lack of US icebreaker ships compared to Russia and China, Rutte acknowledged this competitive disadvantage and noted that NATO does “have to be there.”

Making a more militarised Europe

The most prominent topic between Rutte and Trump was developments in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. At the time of the meeting, US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff was in Saudi Arabia working to negotiate a ceasefire between the warring sides.

Rutte once more praised Trump, thanking the US president for breaking the “deadlock” on the conflict by starting a “dialogue” between Russia and Ukraine.

Further, while the talks themselves have been portrayed as beneficial to Russia and further signalling Washington’s retreat from NATO, Rutte sees Trump and the military alliance on the “same page.” Anticipating the Trump administration’s decline if not outright freeze in military support for Ukraine, Rutte noted in an interview in February an opportunity to “replenish stockpiles” of military equipment. The NATO chief went on to explain that the “easy part” is to remain buying American weapons — a tenet of Trump’s policy to “continue weapon shipments to Ukraine” (and a revenue stream to US businesses) without “expanding US capital.”

Rutte concluded in the interview the only foreseeable problem is: Can the US defence industry “keep up?”

While much of the news is about how the new administration in Washington is destroying a military alliance formed shortly after World War II to combat and eventually defeat the Soviet Union in the Cold War, Donald Trump and Mark Rutte are developing a new future for NATO that, once again, is being led by one country: the United States.

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