President Donald Trump is due to meet with fellow NATO leaders on Wednesday, as the alliance faces growing challenges from both external threats and internal divisions.
Since returning to the White House last year, Trump has repeatedly publicized his dissatisfaction with NATO, pushing member countries for more defense spending, and most recently lambasting NATO allies for refusing to join US military action in Iran. At the NATO summit on Tuesday, Trump reignited intra-alliance tensions when he reiterated his desire to take control of Greenland, a territory of NATO member Denmark.
Speaking to reporters in Ankara, Turkey, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte touted greater cohesion among member states, higher defense spending and a series of military deals being signed at the event as signs of the emergence of “NATO 3.0”.
Despite Trump’s latest pressure on the US to annex Greenland, Rutte stressed that Washington remains committed to the NATO alliance.
“The United States has an absolute commitment to NATO … the commitment is there, there is no doubt about that,” Rutte told reporters upon arriving at the NATO summit on Wednesday morning. “Also, for example, it is in the US interest for NATO to prevent Russia’s nuclear submarines from reaching the shores of the United States. The US needs a secure Atlantic, Europe and the Arctic to remain secure, so there is a full commitment to NATO.”
US President Donald Trump (right) listens to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland on January 21, 2026.
Chip Somodevilla | getty images
Rutte said the coalition’s commitment to spend 5% of members’ national gross domestic product on defense, agreed upon last year, was a “huge victory” for all its members – and a defeat for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I hope that today we will again collectively acknowledge that Russia is a long-term threat to the NATO region,” he said ahead of a meeting between the allies.
Asked if he had a message for Putin, Root replied: “Don’t fool with us.”
“My message is that this coalition of 1 billion people, living in Europe, living in Canada, living in the United States, will defend every inch of our territory,” he said. “You can’t win (against NATO). We are defensive. We will never attack anyone. We will only defend our way of life, our democracy, our territory. So don’t fool with us, don’t play with us.”
NATO has been extensively involved in providing military assistance to Ukraine since Russia launched a full-scale war in the country in early 2022. Parts of the eastern wing of the alliance – Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania – share a border with Ukraine.
Moscow has strongly opposed Ukraine’s joining NATO and claimed that the military alliance’s expansion into Eastern Europe was a reason for the launch of its so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine.