Niemand vertraut dem, was Trumps USA verkaufen – ungeachtet dessen, was die Nato sagt

[Munich’s glitzy annual security conference](https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/starmer-trump-eu-war-4234660?ico=in-line_link) came shortly after a wave of diplomatic spats between the US and Europe, from insults to threats of invasion. But speak to the US and Nato, and you wouldn’t know it.

The conference was used by some as an opportunity for geopolitical window-dressing, with Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio presenting a rose-tinted picture of transatlantic relations after a bruising few months.

Rutte – in a remarkably cheerful disposition as he spent his birthday meeting a small group of journalists including *The i Paper* – struck an ambitiously optimistic tone on [Nato](https://inews.co.uk/topic/nato?srsltid=AfmBOorQ_-8vAVR3SlNUzPxcDq0R-v_DCuW2letgTjR9tk5PmRKlyGxG&ico=in-line_link)‘s future, insisting that his military alliance was stronger than at any time since the Cold War.

The Secretary General said the alliance had taken two big steps of late, hiking defence spending targets to 5 per cent of GDP last June and shifting its “mindset” this week, as Europeans accepted the need to take “more ownership of their own defence, more ownership in the terms of leadership of Nato”.

The episode has Americans feeling “more anchored inside Nato, feeling that Nato is much more balanced” and more able to “pivot, over time, more towards Asia”, he said.

It was a bold claim just weeks after what was arguably the alliance’s lowest moment. The US’s [threats to seize Greenland](https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/greenland-fearing-trumps-next-move-why-he-wants-arctic-4148708?srsltid=AfmBOopJBV6W2wbZZVaoI-wrPd2O2rY3WOJdssghkG75xcrVk-u7YwqI&ico=in-line_link) from Nato ally Denmark shattered the belief that members were united against common threats, instead revealing [dangers within their own camp](https://inews.co.uk/news/nato-never-trumps-threats-ex-pentagon-official-4235180?ico=most_popular).

Not everyone felt such optimism. French President Emmanuel Macron was firm in his long-held commitment that the future of European security lay within the EU, while Sir Keir Starmer sought to [pivot the UK away from the US and towards Europe](https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/starmer-trump-eu-war-4234660?ico=in-line_link), declaring that the country was no longer the “Britain of the Brexit years”.

“There is no British security without Europe, and no European security without Britain. That is the lesson of history – and it is today’s reality too,” the Prime Minister said.

But Rutte said he would “plead against” requests to decouple from the US.

“Nato is the United States, Canada and 30 allies in Europe,” he said. “That transatlantic alliance, the Washington Treaty of 1949, has kept us all in peace. It is the most powerful, most successful defence alliance in world history. My plea would be… to stay together, and that’s exactly what’s happening.”