Reuters: NATO diplomat calls Rutte alliance's “marriage counsellor”

A senior NATO diplomat jokingly described Secretary General Mark Rutte as the alliance's "ultimate marriage counsellor" in its dealings with US President Donald Trump, Reuters reports.

According to the outlet, the diplomat said Rutte helps NATO members stay in President Trump's good graces.

Responding to a question about whether tensions between President Donald Trump and European leaders such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and outgoing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer could resurface at the summit, the diplomat replied that he was optimistic that would not happen.

“I'm optimistic (that won't happen) because I think the leaders know what is at stake,” a senior NATO diplomat said. “And if something like that does occur, then ​we always have the ultimate marriage counsellor, Mark Rutte, to smooth things over."

NATO leaders are expected to gather in Ankara, Türkiye, on July 7–8 to sign a memorandum on the alliance's defence industrial ecosystem and reaffirm their commitment to raising defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035 at the alliance's summit.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov