NATO's Rutte to meet with Trump amid concerns over US cuts

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte is set to travel next week to Washington to meet with President Trump amid tensions over the U.S. cutting the number of troops and equipment it would provide to its European allies should they be attacked.
Rutte will meet Wednesday with Trump at the White House, according to a Friday announcement from the military alliance.
He also will meet with senior Trump administration officials and members of Congress during the three-day trip, which starts Tuesday.
Rutte’s visit would come after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Thursday ripped into NATO allies while announcing a new six-month review of U.S. troop deployments in Europe, accusing the alliance of being a “paper tiger.”
Meeting with his counterparts at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Hegseth said the review would ensure the alliance moves “fast and irreversibly toward Europe leading,” but he did not say whether it will result in a drawdown of U.S. deployments to the continent.
“President Trump has been very clear on this point for many years and over two administrations,” Hegseth said. “And for too long, NATO has been a paper tiger and a one-way street. No more.”
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