00:00One of the stars of the week, and I don't know if you'd agree with my assessment,
00:03some are saying is the NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutter,
00:07who's played a central role in defusing this crisis.
00:11Some are calling him the Trump whisperer,
00:13and he's had to walk a very unenviable tightrope.
00:17I just wondered how you think he's performed,
00:19and do you think there is an argument that NATO,
00:23despite some bruises and some slight sense of humiliation
00:27in some capitals around Europe,
00:30NATO has emerged from all of this stronger?
00:33I think NATO is key for European security, for transatlantic security.
00:38I think it's key for the security of the world, for the stability of the world.
00:41So it's a positive actor and a positive factor in creating stability, global stability.
00:49So in my view, what we need to do is to strengthen NATO, not weaken NATO.
00:55And the Secretary General, Mark Rutter, has a key role to play.
00:59He's in a very difficult position when you have inside the alliance the kind of discussions
01:04that we had around the agreement.
01:06I don't know the details of the plan that is supposed to have been agreed by President Trump,
01:13but I can imagine that we all share the principle and the concern about the security in the Arctic region.
01:22You know, because of climate change, there are new access that has been created across the Arctic region,
01:30and that can have a security dimension.
01:33Greenland is on the way of that.
01:36So it's normal that we all care about Arctic security.
01:40We've been working on that.
01:41I hope that the agreement that has been reached goes in the direction of saying that NATO will invest more
01:50in the security of the Arctic, that member states on both sides of the Atlantic will invest,
01:57and that will create conditions for a better security context in the Arctic.
02:03If that is the case, and I hope that will be the case, NATO will come out reinforced,
02:09and the United States security will be strengthened by that.
02:14That is my sort of benign positive outcome of this Greenland saga.
02:20I hope we are not going towards less good and less optimal solutions.
02:27In that case, replying to your question, if that is the outcome,
02:30then I would say that the Secretary General has done a good job.
