Rutte makes sudden trip to Washington as NATO secretary general meets US president
Illustrative photo: Mark Rutte and Donald Trump (Getty Images)
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte will meet with US President Donald Trump in Washington, according to NATO spokesperson Allison Hart on X and the official announcement on the NATO website.
According to a NATO spokesperson, Mark Rutte will be visiting Washington, D.C., on October 21–22, where he is scheduled to meet with Donald Trump.
No media events are planned following the meeting, and no details have been released about its agenda or topics of discussion.
The visit comes amid delays in preparations for a possible meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Budapest.
Reuters journalist Graham Slattery wrote on X that Rutte’s trip to Washington is linked to the European Union’s intention to respond to Trump’s latest diplomatic maneuvers.
When and where Trump–Putin meeting planned
After a phone call between the US president and the Russian leader on October 16, Donald Trump announced that he and Putin would meet again, this time in Budapest.
As part of the preparation, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held a phone conversation on October 20.
However, the next day, October 21, reports emerged that the meeting would not take place.
Axios correspondent Barak Ravid wrote on X, citing a White House official, that there were "no plans for a Trump–Putin meeting in the foreseeable future."
The official noted that Rubio and Lavrov had a productive call, making an additional in-person meeting unnecessary.
