NATO Sec.-Gen. Mark Rutte speaks to reporters at the NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey. Stay Connected Forbes Breaking News ...
What Mark Rutte said
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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, speaking at the Ankara summit, framed this gathering as focused on implementation, contrasting with last year's planning summit in The Hague. He cited $258 billion in extra spending by Canadian and European allies for 2025-2026, noting they are reaching maximum absorption capacity. Rutte highlighted that European and Canadian investments support nearly 200,000 US defense industry jobs. He credited President Trump for pushing allies toward the 5% defense spending pledge, noting 4% was already reached this year on a 10-year trajectory. On Iran, Rutte called recent US attacks necessary due to ceasefire violations and expected allies to reconfirm Iran must never get nuclear capability and that freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz is crucial. He defended US commitment to NATO, citing US interest in securing the Atlantic and Arctic against Russian submarines. Rutte warned Russia that NATO will defend every inch of its territory.
Key takeaways
NATO allies reached 4% of GDP on defense spending in 2026, on a 10-year trajectory toward the 5% pledge
Canadian and European allies will spend an extra $258 billion on defense in 2025 and 2026
European and Canadian defense investments support almost 200,000 jobs in the US defense industry
Rutte expects allies to reconfirm Iran must never obtain nuclear capability and that Strait of Hormuz freedom of navigation is essential
Rutte called recent US attacks on Iran necessary because Iran was violating the ceasefire
Numbers and commitments
Figure
What it refers to
Type
At
$258 billion
Extra defense spending by Canadian and European allies in 2025-2026
3:46I cannot hear you. Is there a microphone somewhere?
4:20... lack of action from NATO allies over Iran, despite your best efforts yet again to explain to the president how much Europe is spending, how much Canada is spending and what support could be available for Iran, is it falling on deaf ears?
5:33What is your reaction on the recent US attacks on Iran and why don't you feel that this will overshadow this summit?
5:55Do you think that the current level of allied forces in Poland is enough to deter Russia?
7:06Are we expecting to see something like 5% defense pledge like we saw at the summit in The Hague? Are we expecting?
8:37Do you take his threat seriously or do you still think that he is a committed member of the team?
9:57They are carefully following NATO summit here in Ankara. What is your message?
Good morning all of you and let me first of all again thank our hosts Turkey, the president of Turkey, the government of Turkey, but also the people of the beautiful city of Ankara. I do realize that organizing a summit like this in your capital also means that logistics for the people living in the capital is not that easy. So I really want to thank everyone living in Ankara for putting up with this. It is really appreciated that this is an important summit. You are gracious host. Thank you so much.
Last summit in The Hague was all about planning, targeting. It was about the money. It was about industry. It was about of course continuing our support for Ukraine. This summit as I always said is about implementation, getting it done. When you look at the numbers, 258 billion extra spend dollars in 2025 and 2026 by Canadian and European allies, it's staggering. You're reaching the max you can spend more in terms of absorption capacity. When you look at the defense industry on both sides of the Atlantic, we are talking about almost 200,000 jobs in the US supported by European and Canadian investments in the US when it comes to buying from them, investing in them, the defense industry. And so many jobs in Europe and Canada directly related to this. But first of all, we do this because we need the kit. We need to be able to fight the wars if they would ever happen. Basically preventing them, being so strong that nobody will attack us.
Yesterday was a great success. It was a splash. So many new contracts, so many new commitments. So this was also about implementing. Last year planning, this year implementing. And then the support for Ukraine of course continuing, extremely important. And I expect allies today to again commit multi-year. We will see exactly what comes out of it, but my expectation is that we will come out with a strong commitment to keep on supporting Ukraine. What this leads to is a NATO which is truly transformed. If you look at it from the United States perspective, you will have European allies which are much more capable to with the US work together in NATO to keep 1 billion people safe. President Trump has been able to finally get done what since Eisenhower American presidents tried to do, which was to equalize defense spending between Europe and the United States. It is now happening on this trajectory of 5%. We already reached 4% this year, which is amazing. Of course, not only because of President Trump, also because of the Russian threat. But let's be honest, President Trump encouraging European allies and Canada to do this has really helped and it is delivering. I think this is absolutely important. So, a much stronger NATO, a much stronger Europe in a stronger NATO, NATO 3.0. And then I also expect allies today to discuss Iran. I expect allies today to reconfirm that Iran should never ever get its hand on a nuclear capability and secondly that the principle of the freedom of navigation. So the Strait of Hormuz completely opening up again is a sine qua non, is crucial for all 32 allies. So with that I'm happy to take a few questions. Sure.
I cannot hear you. Is there a microphone somewhere? Oh, sorry. Then I'll just listen better. Again, talking about Greenland pulling troops from Europe. This alliance doesn't
On that issue. We discussed this at length in Davos. As you know, we have a process in place. I think he absolutely has a point that Iran, sorry not Iran, here it's China and Russia gaining access to the Arctic. So it is crucial that as an alliance and this is what we agreed in Davos, work together to make sure that doesn't happen and also when it comes to Denmark and Greenland itself we have a good process in place.
Thank you sir. He's already said he's very disappointed with NATO in his opening comments. Disappointed with them regarding Iran. Disappointed regarding the lack of action from NATO allies over Iran, despite your best efforts yet again to explain to the president how much Europe is spending, how much Canada is spending and what support could be available for Iran, is it falling on deaf ears? And actually, he said he doesn't even want to be here without Mr. Erdogan's intervention.
Well, hey, listen, we know that there is disappointment on the American side when it comes to Iran. It has to do with isolated cases. At the same time we see up to 5,000 sorties from European bases. It's implementing all the bilateral basing agreements. It is again Europe as one big platform of power projection for the United States and that's happening. And when it comes to the money and the spending, I mean Europe now equalizing with the United States. It is this president who encouraged us to do this very forcefully. Of course, there is also the Russian threat which forces us to do this on European side of NATO and I think this is a big win for the American president. He has been extremely successful pushing for this since Trump 45 now achieving it in Trump 47.
Well, I think it was absolutely necessary because when you have a ceasefire and Iran is basically violating the ceasefire, we've seen what happened yesterday with ships being attacked. I think it is totally crucial that the US forcefully reacts.
Well, you know what we have to do is forces, we need the kits. So, the defense industrial output, we need everything. And are you from Poland? Your country is investing heavily in its armed forces. You have already basically achieved all the targets. You are reforming your armed forces as we speak. You know there is a strong US commitment to Poland. We have heard this from every senior politician in the US. But of course we have to look and make sure every day that we are as strong as possible.
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Rutte, M. (2026, July 8). FULL GAGGLE: NATO Sec.-Gen. Mark Rutte Speaks To Reporters After Trump Says Iran Ceasefire Is Over [Interview transcript]. Forbes Breaking News. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1100049/
MLA
Mark Rutte. "FULL GAGGLE: NATO Sec.-Gen. Mark Rutte Speaks To Reporters After Trump Says Iran Ceasefire Is Over." Forbes Breaking News, 8 Jul. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1100049/.
BibTeX
@misc{rutte2026_1100049,
author = {Mark Rutte},
title = {FULL GAGGLE: NATO Sec.-Gen. Mark Rutte Speaks To Reporters After Trump Says Iran Ceasefire Is Over},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Forbes Breaking News. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {jul},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1100049/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
