NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte attends a joint press conference with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic (not pictured), in Zagreb, Croatia, January 12, 2026. REUTERS/Antonio Bronic
Mark Rutte, the current secretary general for NATO, was dismissive of Donald Trump's increasingly hostile rhetoric about annexing Greenland, with a report from Politico summing up his comments as "nothing to see here."
Trump's desire to annex Greenland for the U.S. has been a longstanding obsession of his, but his threats were renewed with greater urgency following the military operation in Venezuela that captured President Nicolás Maduro and saw the U.S. taking over the country's oil fields. While the administration has stressed that the plan is to try to negotiate the purchase of the autonomous territory from Denmark, Trump has refused to rule out using the military to seize the island and has said he will take it "one way or the other."
Such a military operation would pose an existential threat to NATO, as it would involve one member nation, the US, attacking another, Denmark. Many experts warn that it would spell the end of the military alliance, which has helped stave off another world war for nearly a century.
Rutte, the former Dutch prime minister who has served as NATO secretary general since October 2024, said on Monday during a visit to Zagreb, Croatia, that the alliance is "not at all" at risk due to Trump's Greenland threats, and further claimed that "we are really working in the right direction."
As Politico noted, among Trump's various justifications for wanting Greenland have been national security concerns, claiming that Russian and Chinese vessels have been sighted near the island territory. Rutte on Monday seemed to agree with Trump, and said there was "a risk that Russians and the Chinese will be more active" near Greenland.
“All allies agree on the importance of the Arctic and Arctic security,” Rutte said, “and currently we are discussing... how to make sure that we give practical follow-up on those discussions.”
Rutte also mentioned efforts by various NATO members to increase military spending and deployment in Greenland in an effort to appease Trump's supposed national security concerns and avert a U.S. military takeover. He also commended Trump's push to get all NATO members to contribute at least 5 percent of their GDPs to defense spending.
"Donald Trump is doing the right things for NATO by encouraging us all to spend more to equalize this,” Rutte said. “As [NATO] secretary-general, it is my role to make sure that the whole of the alliance is as secure and safe as possible."