NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the alliance is "stronger than ever" in an interview with the BBC at the summit in Ankara. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing BBC News.
His comments came despite inflammatory remarks from Donald Trump, who expressed disappointment that NATO did not join his war with Iran. (NATO was not consulted, but several countries, including the UK, allowed US forces to use their bases to strike Iranian missile sites).
Rutte compared Trump's comments to a "family argument": "It's a bit like in a family, you have families where you never quarrel and then it bursts out completely." He said he is "100% convinced" Trump is committed to NATO.
Rutte cited the US operation "Epic Fury" against Iran as an example of Europe's importance: "Five thousand planes taking off from European bases based on bilateral basing agreements in the six weeks between end of February and mid-April, till a ceasefire came into force."
The summit focused on turning European governments' pledges of more defence spending into concrete action. Rutte noted that Canada and Europe have spent an extra quarter of a trillion dollars on defence in two years.
Rutte expressed confidence that NATO would be ready if Russia were to attack in 2030: "Absolutely we'll be ready. Now we're ready, in 2030 we are ready. We will never attack another country, but every adversary knows that if they try to attack us, we are ready. We will defend ourselves."