NATO chief Mark Rutte congratulated Donald Trump on Wednesday for being elected president of the United States, and emphasised that members were increasing their military spending, a response to a persistent Trump criticism of the Western alliance.

U.S. army vehicles including tanks are brought ashore in the Netherlands as a military unit is transported to Poland and Lithuania as part of a NATO mission to reinforce the alliance's eastern flank after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Vlissingen, Netherlands January 11, 2023. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

New NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte is confident that the United States will remain in the defence alliance, even if Donald Trump becomes the 47th president of the United States. Rutte, in an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF on Monday evening,

European NATO members face uncertainty over the alliance's future with Donald Trump's return to the White House. Trump criticizes NATO and has previously suggested withdrawing the U.S. from the alliance.