00:00NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is facing a backlash after saying that the EU should keep on dreaming about becoming independent from the US in matters related to security and defense.
00:14His comments came on the heels of US President Donald Trump's attempt to seize Greenland from Denmark through punitive measures.
00:22Tensions were diffused by a deal on Arctic security brokered by Rutte.
00:26So when President Trump is doing good stuff, I will praise him and I don't mind him publishing text messages.
00:33And if anyone thinks here, again, that the European Union or Europe as a whole can defend itself without the US, keep on dreaming.
00:41You can't. We can't. We need each other.
00:43Rutte argued that European nations would have to spend 10% of their GDP rather than 5% as under the current goal to make up for the loss of Washington's backing.
00:54In response, the European Commission said the focus should remain on increasing EU's resilience and independence.
01:01We are committed to indeed making sure that we become increasingly resilient, increasingly independent on the various fronts.
01:11We just talked about energy. That's one where we have a positive story to tell in terms of how we've been able to reduce our dependence on imports of fossil fuels from Russia.
01:22And such dependencies are seen also in other areas, on defense, on critical raw materials.
01:30Last week, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for greater European independence in response to the growing geopolitical instability.
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