STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The head of NATO visits the White House today - well-timed visit for Mark Rutte. The president has lashed out at NATO allies for their reluctance or refusal to support the war. Teri Schultz reports that Rutte has become accustomed to navigating the Trump administration.
TERI SCHULTZ: The last time NATO chief Mark Rutte had this much riding on a meeting with Donald Trump, the president had insisted he was going to take over the Danish island of Greenland, possibly by military force. Denmark was up in arms - literally - sending troops to Greenland to fight back against U.S. forces if necessary. Then, in a private meeting, Rutte convinced Trump he should talk things out with Denmark instead of invading. Now Rutte's task is to convince Trump he shouldn't quit NATO, as he's repeatedly threatened, over European disapproval of his war on Iran.
MARTIN QUENCEZ: It's certainly a very, very dangerous moment for NATO.
SCHULTZ: Martin Quencez with the German Marshall Fund think tank expects Rutte to continue his practice of extreme flattery of Trump and to try to keep the focus on wins for the president, such as forcing the other NATO governments to dramatically increase defense spending.
QUENCEZ: Rutte is committed to make sure that the U.S. does not effectively retreat from European security. And I believe that he will continue to say whatever he thinks is necessary to convince Donald Trump that it is not in the U.S. interests to go further in criticizing NATO or even weakening the credibility of Article 5.
SCHULTZ: Article 5, the all-for-one, one-for-all pledge of solidarity and collective defense, is one of the aspects of NATO membership that Trump takes issue with most often. And it's the one that Linas Kojala, director of the Geopolitics and Security Studies Center in Vilnius, Lithuania, worries about the most.
LINAS KOJALA: We cannot allow ourselves to see U.S. withdrawing from NATO, formally or informally. That would be detrimental to the security of especially the eastern-flank countries. We are vulnerable.
SCHULTZ: Kojala even suggests opponents of Trump's war on Iran should perhaps tone down the dispute in favor of the end goal - keeping NATO together. European NATO members will be watching Rutte closely, hoping he can keep Article 5 credibility intact and prevent discussion of Article 13 of NATO's founding treaty. That's the one laying out the path for how a country can leave the alliance.
For NPR News, I'm Teri Schultz in Brussels.
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