By Andrew Gray and Lili Bayer

BRUSSELS — NATO’s new chief Mark Rutte voiced strong support for Ukraine on Tuesday and said he was not worried about the upcoming U.S. election as he could work with former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris.

Rutte, a former Dutch prime minister, took over from Jens Stoltenberg as NATO secretary general just weeks before the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential vote that pits Democrat Harris against Republican Trump, who has been highly critical of NATO.

Trump has also declined to say whether he wants Ukraine to win the war against Russia’s invasion.

But Rutte played down concerns within the transatlantic alliance about the vote in NATO’s predominant power, telling reporters at NATO headquarters: “I’m not worried.”

“I worked for four years with Donald Trump. He was the one pushing us to spend more (on defense), and he achieved – because … we are now at a much higher spending level than we were when he took office,” Rutte said.

NATO estimates that 23 of its 32 members will meet its target of spending at least 2% of GDP on defense this year, compared to just three countries a decade ago.

Officials say some of that is down to Trump but much of it was propelled by Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Rutte said Trump had also been right to push NATO to focus more on China. He repeated a NATO assertion that China has become a “decisive enabler” of Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine by supplying Russia with important technology.

Rutte also praised Harris, saying she had a “fantastic record as vice president” and was a “highly respected leader”.

On the war in Ukraine, he avoided a direct answer when asked whether Kyiv was winning. NATO members provide the vast majority of weapons and ammunition supplied to Ukraine.

Rutte said the situation on the battlefield was “difficult” and Russia had made “limited” gains this year but at a high cost. He said he had seen estimates that 1,000 Russian soldiers were recently being killed or wounded every day.

“We have to make sure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign, independent, democratic nation,” he said.

Signaling continuity with Stoltenberg, Rutte said he had three main priorities – making sure NATO had the capabilities to protect against any threat, supporting Ukraine and addressing global challenges by working with partners “near and far”.

CENTRAL ROLE

The war in Ukraine has put NATO – founded in 1949 to deter and defend against any attack on Western Europe by the Soviet Union – back at the center of international affairs.

While Western leaders stress NATO is a defensive alliance, Moscow has long insisted it is a threat to Russia’s security.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday it did not expect any improvement in relations with NATO under Rutte.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted NATO to send thousands more troops to its eastern flank and to radically revamp its defense plans to take the possibility of an attack from Moscow more seriously than at any point since the end of the Cold War.

One of Rutte’s key tasks will be to persuade NATO members to come up with the extra troops, weapons and spending to fully realize the new defense plans, diplomats and analysts say.

“We have to invest more and close the capability gaps and try to achieve all the targets NATO has set here,” Rutte said. — Reuters