NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Friday that Europe and the United States should eventually repair their respective relationships with Russia once the Russia-Ukraine was is over.
"It's normal if the war would have stopped for Europe to somehow step by step and also for the U.S. step by step to restore normal relations with Russia," Rutte told Bloomberg.
He added that NATO must continue to apply pressure to Russia to ensure Moscow's full participation in the ongoing negotiations for a pause in the fighting, which is now in its third year.
"We are absolutely not there yet," he said, referring to the normalization of relations. "That's why we have the sanctions. Let's not be naive about the Russians. But in the longer term, Russia is there, and Russia will not go away."
Rutte's comments come one day after an Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump to discuss the United States' 30-day ceasefire plan. He would not comment on the plan's feasibility, but Politico reported that Rutte called it a "very smart plan" and said he's "happy" at the turn of events.
"The Trump administration, the president himself, broke the deadlock in this war because he started to engage with the Russians," Rutte said, according to Bloomberg. "I think that's positive for the Ukrainians.
"The U.S. administration is now in dialogue with the Russians to see where they stand on this, and this will be a step-by-step approach," he continued. "But this is literally developing over the next couple of hours and days, so it's very hard to predict when that will happen."
The secretary-general also reportedly said that "it would be difficult for NATO to get involved" in the situation, adding that "there are many ways" to provide Ukraine with security guarantees.
Overall, Rutte described his White House conversation with Trump as "very positive" and said he received an "absolute clear commitment" to NATO from the American commander in chief, according to Bloomberg.