‘Russian claim’ on Latvia, Baltics is ‘totally ridiculous, and Russia knows it,’ Nato’s Rutte says
Rutte also gets asked about Russia’s escalating rhetoric and threats against Latvia and the Baltics, as reported in yesterday’s blog.
Russia keeps saying that Latvia and potentially other Baltic countries are about to give Ukraine a permission to attack Russia from its territories with drones. Latvia and Ukraine repeatedly dismissed the claims as “lies.”
Rutte has no time for it:
double quotation markThe Russian claim is totally ridiculous, and Russia knows it.
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Updated at 06.10 EDT
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Rutte also repeatedly gets asked about Trump’s criticism of Nato, now backed with first decisions to pull out some troops.
But, as usual, he repeats that this is “a healthy” approach as it pushes Europe to do more and take more responsibility for its own security.
“Hey, Europe is – with UK and Turkey, and Norway – over 500 million people. We are facing an adversary in Russia of about 120 to 140 million people, and we are now overly dependent on one ally with about 350 million people, making sure that we can defend ourselves against Russia.
That’s not sustainable long term, and that one ally cannot keep explaining this to his public.”
And that ends his press conference.
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Rutte also gets asked about his proposals that Nato’s European countries spend 0.25% of their GDP on help for Ukraine.
He says his role is “sometimes to bring some bold proposals to the table, and sometimes they will not be accepted – I do not think this one will be.”
He says there is “a lot of opposition against this fixed 0.25%,” but he wanted a debate on how Ukraine will continue to be supported.
“Ukraine cannot survive without this crucial flow of US gear, industrial output into Ukraine, including anti-missile systems, and anti-missile missiles, interceptors; this is crucial stuff.”
He says he wants allies to be honest with each other and figure out how they can share this burden.
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Meanwhile, we are getting a bit more from Lithuania on today’s incident, with the chief of the country’s national crisis management centre saying that the authorities are still trying to figure out if the drone crashed or left the country, and what its origin was. But he confirms it was a military drone.
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Rutte also gets asked for more details on the Estonian incident from yesterday and get pressed on why Nato did not shot down other drones during similar incursions over Romania.
He says he cannot reveal more as it remains “confidential,” but he pays tribute to the Romanian-led response to the incident yesterday.
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‘Russian claim’ on Latvia, Baltics is ‘totally ridiculous, and Russia knows it,’ Nato’s Rutte says
Rutte also gets asked about Russia’s escalating rhetoric and threats against Latvia and the Baltics, as reported in yesterday’s blog.
Russia keeps saying that Latvia and potentially other Baltic countries are about to give Ukraine a permission to attack Russia from its territories with drones. Latvia and Ukraine repeatedly dismissed the claims as “lies.”
Rutte has no time for it:
double quotation markThe Russian claim is totally ridiculous, and Russia knows it.
Share
Updated at 06.10 EDT
Rutte gets asked about today’s incident in Lithuania.
He says Nato has offered “a calm, decisive, and proportionate response to these drone incursions” in the region.
“If drones come from Ukraine, they are not there because Ukraine wanted to send a drone to Latvia, Lithuania, or Estonia. They are there because of the reckless, illegal, full-scale attack of Russia, starting in 2022 after, of course, what they did in Crimea in 2014 against Ukraine.”
He hails Nato’s response with a Romanian F-16 fighter jet stationed in Lithuania taking out the drone over Estonia.
He then declines to comment on whether the use of fighter jets is the best way to fight drones.
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Rutte also gets asked about the reigning confusion over the US plans regarding its force posture in Europe, including its decision to pull some troops out of Germany and Poland.
As often, he doesn’t really answer the question directly, talking instead about how “the Europeans and the Canadians are massively stepping up in terms of defence spending.”
He says he “totally agreed” with US vice-president JD Vance’s comments from last night that “Europe has to take a bigger role” in Nato, and “take more of the responsibility for the conventional defence” of the continent.
“Against that background, we know that adjustments will take place. The US has to pivot more towards, for example, Asia. This will take place over time in a structured way,” he says.
He points to Nato’s supreme allied commander Alexus Grynkewich’s comments yesterday saying that the changes will not have an impact on Nato’s defence plans (Europe Live, Tuesday).
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Rutte gets asked about growing speculations about who could be the EU’s negotiator with Russia if there are ever direct talks about ending the war in Ukraine – and specifically, about Italy’s Mario Draghi as a potential candidate (as covered on Europe Live blog this week).
He says Draghi is a “close personal friend,” but declines to comment.
“I think first the EU has to decide on what role it will play, it wants to play, and then, if the answer is yet, there has to be a debate on who can play that role, but I leave that with the EU. I think it’s really for them to decide, not for me to comment.”
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Updated at 05.32 EDT
Rutte also turns to the Middle East, criticising Iran for “a direct assault on freedom of navigation and global commerce” through its activities on the strait of Hormuz.
He says several Nato countries are “coming together around plans to ensure freedom of navigation.”
He then turns to Q&A.
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Rutte also addresses yesterday’s drone incident in Estonia.
He says that as part of Nato’s Baltic air policing mission, a Romanian F-16 downed a drone over Estonia.
“This was a Ukrainian drone, but it wouldn’t have been there but for Russia’s aggression,” he says.
Rutte stresses that “Nato’s air defences were effective yet again.”
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