Mark Rutte, NATO’s new secretary general, said in a press conference Tuesday that despite “reckless and irresponsible” rhetoric from the Kremlin, he does not see an impending nuclear threat from Russia.
“We should just acknowledge the fact that clearly, there is no imminent threat of nuclear weapons being used,” Rutte said at the press conference filmed by NATO, “and that is important and generally, not just on nuclear, but more generally, if you would give in to Putin threats, that would set a precedent that using military force allows a country to get what it wants, and we cannot do that.”
Formerly the Prime Minister of the Netherlands from October 2010 to July 2024, serving for the center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, Rutte was speaking at his first press conference for the military alliance since he took over from Jens Stoltenberg.
Rutte spoke a week after Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, said on Russian state media that he would change the country’s military doctrine to show that an attack from a non-nuclear state with weapons aid from a nuclear-state would be considered a “joint attack,” and would justify nuclear retaliation by Moscow.
Putin made this statement to his Security Council after Russian state media quoted Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying in September that Putin was considering changing his nuclear doctrine in response to Western activity in Ukraine.
Putin’s filmed meeting last week also followed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with a U.S. Congressional delegation to discuss a “victory plan” for Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian president’s website.
“This is a very specific plan on how to strengthen Ukraine without any decisions or pressure from Russia,” Zelenskyy had said to the delegation.
Rutte, however, alluded that he thinks Putin’s filmed comments are a scare tactic by the Kremlin.
“Let him talk about his nuclear arsenal,” Rutte said. “He wants us also to discuss his nuclear arsenal. And I think we shouldn’t.”