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| Mark Rutte and Donald Trump at the Nato meeting. Photo: Belga Pool/Melanie Wenger via HH |
Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte described his meeting with US president Donald Trump at Thursday’s Nato meeting in Brussels as ‘fine’, adding that he expects ‘to build up a fine relationship with him’.
Trump had used his speech at the Nato meeting to lecture world leaders for failing to spend enough on defence, leaving the ‘taxpayers of the United States’ to make up the shortfall.
The Netherlands is one of the countries which do not meet the commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defence. To meet the target, the Netherlands would have to spend an extra €2bn a year, RTL news said.
‘It will be an important element in the cabinet formation talks,’
Rutte said. ‘I have already said we are working towards it. But you cannot do this in one go.’ Rutte declined to comment on Trump’s criticism, saying he did not wish to give a review of the president. ‘There would be no point,’ he said. ‘Every country chooses their own head of state.’
More on Trump’s comments
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