Arms And the Man

FOR NATO CHIEF MARK RUTTE, GETTING EUROPE TO PAY MORE FOR ITS DEFENSE MAY BE THE EASY PART

- ADAM RASMI

NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL MARK RUTTE KEEPS A VARIETY of mementos in his office. There is a sprawling photograph of the North Sea from the vantage point of his hometown in the Netherlands, a kanji gift from Japan's Minister of Defense, and a framed floral embroidery that reads "In Unity is Strength" in Cyrillic with the stitched flags of NATO, Ukraine, and the E.U. But the room's largest ornamental feature is the blue-andwhite map of the world that looms above his conference desk.

"In the past, I was responsible for this," the former Dutch Prime Minister says, pointing to his tiny home country in the northwestern corner of Europe. He extends his arms out to encircle the entire Western defense alliance that is home to 1 billion people. "And now..." he says, with a wry laugh.

It's a glimpse of the storms roiling beneath the optimism of the preternaturally cheerful Rutte. We are in the steel and glass NATO HQ on the outskirts of Brussels, completed eight years ago at a cost of $1.3 billion, its interlocking buildings meant to evoke fingers clasped together in unity. But on this balmy May afternoon, five weeks before a critical summit with the mercurial U.S. President Donald Trump and dozens of other leaders, the question of unity hangs over the alliance. "It is really a pivotal moment," Rutte says, after we sit down in his office, some six short months after he became Secretary-General in October.