NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Wednesday that President Trump is “the only one” who can get a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
Mr. Rutte met with senators on Capitol Hill ahead of his meeting with Mr. Trump at the White House and he said the two will discuss how NATO can “be helpful in delivering his vision of getting a full scale peace in Ukraine.”
“I have total confidence in President Trump. He’s the only one who can get this done,” Mr. Rutte told reporters.
He said his visit to the White House should not be seen as a signal that Mr. Trump’s meeting last week with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a disaster.
“This was already planned before,” he said. “I was texting with the president after an enormous success in Gaza, and we said, ‘Hey, let’s have a meeting in Washington to discuss how we now can deliver his vision of peace in Ukraine.’”
Mr. Rutte said he thought Friday’s meeting with Mr. Zelenskyy, who came to Washington to request U.S.-made Tomahawk missiles, but left empty-handed, was a “good [and] successful meeting.”
Mr. Trump had spoken on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin a day before he met with the Ukrainian leader.
“It’s exactly what we need,” he said. “The American president, who broke the deadlock with Putin in February, took that leadership role which only he can and he is delivering and I’m really commending him for that.”
Mr. Rutte said “we will build” on the meeting Mr. Trump had with Mr. Zelenskyy.
After the meeting Friday, Mr. Trump said it was time to “stop the killing, and make a DEAL.”
“Enough blood has been shed, with property lines being defined by War and Guts. They should stop where they are,” he wrote on social media.
Mr. Rutte agreed with Mr. Trump’s sentiment Wednesday, saying “it sounds simple but of course is also exactly right.”
He said “in the future there will be many more discussions with the leaders of Ukraine and of Russia in whatever format in whatever setting to deliver peace.”
Mr. Trump had said that he and Mr. Putin planned to meet in the coming weeks in Hungary, but since then the White House has walked that back and said there’s no plans for the two to meet soon.
The president told reporters Tuesday that he didn’t want a “wasted meeting,” but didn’t share why he thought it would be wasted.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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