NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the White House’s decision to sell weapons to NATO countries for distribution to Ukraine was a "significant" moment for Europe amid stalled peace negotiations to end Russia’s war.
Rutte met with President Donald Trump Monday in Washington, D.C., where the commander-in-chief announced the sale of billions of dollars worth of weapons, including Patriot air defense missile systems, and threatened 100% secondary tariffs on countries that trade with Russia if a deal isn’t made within 50 days.
"This is significant," Rutte said on "Special Report." "So today, if you are in Beijing, or in Delhi, or you're in Brazil and you know that this is coming to you, you might want to call Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and say, ‘Hey, friend, we are still buying stuff from you, but you have got to get serious when it comes to these negotiations on the ceasefire or a peace deal, or otherwise we get hit by the secondary sanctions.’"
TRUMP'S BOLD PIVOT ON UKRAINE SENDS MAJOR SIGNAL
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said China, India and Brazil buy oil and petroleum products from Russia, helping prop up its war machine.
Trump has held off on imposing additional sanctions on Moscow, preferring to wait and see if his diplomatic efforts will bear fruit. He has grown frustrated with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has refused to agree to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire proposed by the United States and its European allies earlier this year.
"If we don't have an agreement in 50 days, that's what we're doing, secondary tariffs, and they're biting. And I hope we don't get to the point where we do, but I've been hearing so much talk. It's all talk. It's all talk, and then missiles go into Kyiv and kill 60 people. It's got to stop," Trump said Monday from the Oval Office.
Putin has escalated attacks on Ukraine in recent months, targeting Kyiv with large-scale missile and drone attacks. The Russian strongman has stuck to his maximalist demands during two rounds of peace talks in Istanbul that have failed to produce much other than prisoner of war exchanges.
Rutte told Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier that the weapons sales send a clear message to Putin about the unity between the United States and Europe and how the two will "do whatever it takes for Ukraine."
"If I was in the Kremlin today, I would not be too happy because this is a clear signal that President Trump is serious. He wants peace. He hates the fact that so many people lose their lives in Ukraine," said the former prime minister of the Netherlands.
SENATE MOVES TO REIGN IN TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S FLUCTUATING UKRAINE POLICY
Trump has set multiple two-week deadlines for Russia to advance peace talks with Ukraine, but they’ve repeatedly expired without significant progress or consequences.
Ukraine’s former Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on Trump last month to reshuffle three things to revitalize the negotiating process: sticks, carrots and the pressure of time.
Kuleba said Trump created the pressure of time by stating he could end the war in 24 hours and calling on both sides to sit down and negotiate.
"What happened next is that all sticks went to Ukraine and all carrots went to Russia. It has never worked like this centuries ago in the history of diplomacy. It doesn't work like this, and it's not going to work like this, OK, because the right way to do it is to create a pressure of time to avoid endless deliberations and to find the right balance of sticks and carrots for each side," he said.
