Brussels, May 13 (LaPresse) – “My message to the United States is this: the Europeans have received the message” and “they are now working” on it. This was stated by Mark Rutte during a press conference at the Bucharest Nine summit in Bucharest. “Sometimes within NATO we have our discussions, and for a couple of months we have known there has been some disappointment in the United States regarding the reaction of some allies concerning Iran and the war against Iran by the United States and Israel. But I would say that clearly the allies have received the message on two fronts. First of all, regarding commitments, we are seeing massively across Europe that countries are doing what they had promised,” he said. Regarding the Strait of Hormuz and initiatives such as the American and the Franco-British ones, they are “very aligned with each other, to ensure that in the next phase we have everything necessary to carry out mine-clearing operations and to ensure that the strait remains open.” Rutte also stressed that “today we learned that the Italians will send two additional minesweeper ships, not yet into the Strait of Hormuz,” but nearby “so that they can be active when necessary.” “If we look at the U.S. presence in Europe, it remains vast and substantial, and there is a clear commitment from the United States to remain involved in the conventional defense of the European component of NATO as well,” the former Dutch prime minister added.
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