The NATO chief’s warning comes after Trump appointed retired General Keith Kellogg to serve as his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia.
Kellogg’s plan for ending the war, which began when Russia invaded Ukrainian sovereign territory, involves freezing the battle lines at their prevailing locations and forcing both Kyiv and Moscow to the negotiating table.
In an interview with the British newspaper The Financial Times, Rutte said that a peace deal in Ukraine that benefits Moscow would empower China, North Korea, and Iran, all of whom, he said, have grown closer to one another in recent times.
He added: “We cannot have a situation where we have [North Korean leader] Kim Jong Un and the Russian leader and [Chinese president] Xi Jinping and Iran high-fiving because we came to a deal which is not good for Ukraine, because long-term that will be a dire security threat not only to Europe but also to the US.
“Look at the missile technology which is now being sent from Russia into North Korea, which is posing a dire threat not only to South Korea, Japan, but also to the US mainland.”
Rutte said: “Iran is getting money from Russia in return for, for example, missiles, but also drone technology. And the money is being used to prop up Hizbollah and Hamas, but also steering conflict beyond the region.
“So the fact that Iran, North Korea, China and Russia are working so closely together... [means] these various parts of the world where conflict is, and have to be managed by politicians, are more and more getting connected.”
Rutte said he relayed these points to Trump when the two met in Florida in November, in an effort to persuade the Republican not to change Washington’s current support for Ukraine.
Rutte, a former Dutch prime minister who assumed leadership of NATO in October, has a track record of successfully working with Trump when the Republican first entered the White House.
Referring to his working relationship with Trump, Rutte said: “We have a strong relationship. We liked each other when I was in my previous role when he was president. And I sense that we can work from the same basis.”
