On 7 November, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte participated in the meeting of the European Political Community (EPC) in Budapest, Hungary. The European leaders discussed a broad range of security challenges and the importance of working together to address them. This included exchanges not only on traditional threats and challenges but also on issues like economic security and critical dependencies.
NATO Secretary General highlighted the importance of working together – across the European community and also through NATO and its global partners as well.
Rutte noted that the growing alignment between Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, which are working together to support Russia’s war against Ukraine, is a reality that has broader impacts. In exchange for this support, Rutte said, “Russia is delivering technology to North Korea” that will enable the DPRK to “threaten the US mainland, continental Europe and our Indo-Pacific partners”.
“These are new, dangerous developments that we need to discuss together,” emphasised Secretary General.
In the margins of the meeting, Rutte met with several leaders, including the host, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Albanian President Edi Rama, and others.
