Has NATO chief Rutte threatened to expel the US? – DW – 14-11-2024

With Donald Trump as president-elect of the United States, it is not clear what exactly his Ukraine policy will look like in the future. NATO partners feel left in the dark about Trump’s willingness to support Kiev and its European allies in the fight against Russian forces from Ukrainian territory.

Social media users are also speculating about the possible impact of the US elections on the NATO alliance. And it is not the first time that Russian disinformation websites have created rumors and misinformation about the blockade. NATO has often been the target of disinformation in the past, as in this case.

Claim: NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is reported to have announced that “if Trump hands over Ukraine to Putin, he will personally expel the United States from the alliance.” The claim was originally posted on Telegram was distributed by an X user on November 10 and has already been viewed more than 2 million times . Other X-posts with similar allegations have also been viewed several million times.

DW Fact Check: False.

There is no evidence for this alleged statement by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. In response to a written request from DW, NATO also stated that this claim is “fake”.

According to Article 13 of the 1949 NATO Treatymembers can report their withdrawal, but the document does not provide for the expulsion of a member. The only measure the treaty provides to punish serious violations of the alliance’s principles is a joint decision by the other member states to limit or suspend cooperation.

Moreover, the Secretary General of NATO has no right to adopt such a resolution himself. The member must make any decision regarding the alliance states collectively.

“I look forward to seeing him soon”

Rutte’s alleged claim also does not match the political views he has publicly expressed. On November 7, NATO Secretary General congratulated Donald Trump on his “remarkable election victory” over: “I look forward to seeing him soon. We will work together to address the many security challenges we face.”

Nothing indicates an end to the collaboration. On the contrary, in an interview During the meeting of the European Political Community in Budapest on November 7, Rutte confirmed his confidence in cooperation with Trump. “He (Trump) understands that you have to interact with each other to arrive at common positions. And I think we can do that,” he said.

However, he also made it clear that a Russian military success in Ukraine would be a problem not only for European NATO members, but also for the United States.

‘NATO is a target for disinformation’

The false NATO claim about Mark Rutte was not only spread via Telegram. The message also spread in several articles on the websites of the Pravda networkwhich has been exposed by several fact-checking organizations as a Russian disinformation network. It should not be confused with the Russian newspaper of the same name founded in 1914 by Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin.

“The main goal of the disinformation campaigns is to destabilize NATO by creating tensions among Allies,” Dick Zandee, head of the Security and Defense Program at the Clingendael Institute in The Hague, told DW. “The election victory of Donald Trump, who has a very critical attitude towards NATO, offers new opportunities for such disinformation activities.”

The US is the main source of military and economic support for Ukraine. An end to US support for Ukraine could lead to a decisive turning point in the war and allow the Kremlin to shift the military balance in Ukraine in its favor.

“NATO is a very likely target for disinformation as Russia portrays it as the organization responsible for the war in Ukraine,” Zandee told DW.

False stories to discredit NATO

False information about NATO is anything but new. According to a study by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), there were campaigns spreading false stories about NATO expansionSince the Russian annexation of Crimea in March 2014, these attacks have become more common, in part to justify the large-scale attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

DW’s fact-checking team has proven several claims about the transatlantic alliance to be false. The purpose behind such statements has always been the same: to discredit NATO and sow discontent against the Western alliance.

Edited by: Rachel Baig