NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte plans to visit President Donald Trump on Wednesday, with his arrival in Washington coming two weeks before the alliance's annual gathering and coinciding with a Pentagon assessment of military presence across Europe.

Trump has repeatedly argued that NATO members fail to contribute their fair share to collective defense costs, leaving the United States to bear an outsized financial responsibility. However, his objections have intensified following the conflict with Iran as he expressed dissatisfaction with certain member states declining to support efforts to reopen maritime commerce via the blocked Strait of Hormuz. Trump has restated his position on potentially withdrawing from the defence alliance, which was established 77 years ago, before the gathering of NATO leaders scheduled in Turkey for next month.

Rutte, recognised for his effective rapport with the president, is anticipated to pursue reconciliation during Wednesday's White House discussions. The visit follows U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's criticism of partner nations during a gathering at NATO headquarters in Brussels the previous week.

A six-month evaluation of military deployments in Europe was initiated by the Defense Department. Hegseth aligned with certain criticisms, stating that partner nations in Europe had declined to authorize the use of their facilities for operations targeting Iran. The U.S. and Israel initiated the conflict on Feb. 28 without prior consultation with NATO partners, several of whom have publicly questioned the approach.

Trump has stated that NATO member countries failed to support the United States and has floated the possibility of withdrawing from the organization, which was established in 1949 as a collective defence mechanism against Soviet influence in Europe during the Cold War era. The treaty's core provision establishes a collective defense clause whereby aggression against any signatory constitutes aggression against all members. Article 5 was activated only once before, in 2001, when NATO members rallied behind America following the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

The Pentagon's indication that it would scale back its European military footprint to address other priorities represented another source of instability for the 32-nation alliance following Trump's return to the presidency. Last year, the Republican leader raised the prospect of acquiring Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, drawing surprise from European partners.

Rutte currently prioritises maintaining U.S. participation in the alliance, drawing on his established ability to address the former president's concerns effectively. Rutte regularly praises the president's role in encouraging NATO member nations to raise their defence budgets. In the previous year, leaders were urged to commit to annual defence spending of 5% of GDP by 2035.

Rutte participated in a Fox News Channel interview on Tuesday evening, a network Trump regularly watches. Rutte offered consistent commendation of Trump, noting his leadership role within NATO and expressing full support for his Iran policy, while characterising Trump's concerns about European base usage as limited instances, though Rutte's approach has occasionally drawn attention, including a summit reference to the president using an informal term.

Following the exchange, Rutte sent him a message that praised the outcome and emphasized Europe's commitment to increased contributions, crediting Trump's leadership and employing the capitalization style Trump frequently uses. Trump posted the confidential correspondence publicly on his platform. He did the same thing again in January, dispatching another communication to Rutte that concluded with an expression of anticipation for their meeting. Content: Yours, Mark.

___ Associated Press writer Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.