Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, called on Canada and Europe to spend more on defense, which has been one of U.S. President Donald Trump’s key criticisms of NATO allies, even during his first term.

Mark Rutte, Secretary General of NATO, tried to reassure allies that U.S. President Donald Trump and the United States are committed to the defense alliance even as tensions mount over uneven defense spending.

“There is total commitment by the U.S. president and the U.S. senior leadership to NATO,” Rutte said at a public forum while kicking off the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands.

Rutte also addressed the elephant in the room and one of President Trump’s key criticisms of several allies in NATO – uneven defense spending. Trump highlighted that he wants NATO allies to spend more on defense this during his previous term, too.

“However, it (commitment) comes with an expectation. And the expectation is that we will finally deal with this huge irritant, which is that we are not spending enough as Europeans and Canadians,” he added.

Rutte said Trump wanted other members of NATO to spend on the same level as the U.S. He justified it by saying that not only was it fair to do so, but it is also necessary amid the ongoing aggression and threat from Russia.

Earlier in the day, President Trump posted on Truth Social what appeared to be a personal message from Rutte.

“You will achieve something no American president in decades could get done. Europe is going to pay in a big way, as they should,” the message read, seemingly from Rutte. However, its authenticity is not known yet, nor has Rutte publicly spoken about it so far.

Trump and his predecessors have called out other NATO members for not contributing enough to the military alliance. Some major members like Canada, Italy, Spain, Belgium, and Portugal, among others, are still below NATO’s current target of spending 2% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense.

“The United States is at almost $1 Trillion Dollars (sic) — This is incredible! Will be discussing it soon with the Members of NATO,” Trump said in another post on Truth Social, calling out the low-paying members of the alliance.

Meanwhile, U.S. equity markets surged on Tuesday as Israel-Iran ceasefire boosted investor sentiment.

At the time of writing, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, was up 1.1%, while the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) gained 1.53%. Stocktwits data shows retail sentiment around the S&P 500 ETF has been in the ‘extremely bearish’ territory over the past week.

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