Rutte Marks 25th Anniversary of 9/11 in New York, Says 'Putin Is in a Bad Place' While NATO 3.0 Burden-Shift Friction Persists

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, in New York for the UN General Assembly, spoke at a 9/11 Memorial & Museum event on September 24, 2026 commemorating the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, recalling that NATO invoked Article 5 for the first and only time in its history in response and declaring the allies 'remain united in our determination to safeguard freedom, protect from aggression, and ensure an attack like 9/11 will never ever happen again.' On the sidelines, addressing reports of Russian hybrid threats against European states, Rutte said 'Putin is in a bad place,' arguing Moscow's escalating hybrid operations reflect military weakness rather than strength after nearly five years of war in Ukraine, and said NATO has 'all these response options in place' and 'is ready for this.' He also met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski while in New York. The reassurance messaging came against the backdrop of continued transatlantic friction over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's 'NATO 3.0' push for Europe to assume primary responsibility for continental conventional defense, underscoring that unity messaging on Russia and unresolved burden-sharing tension with Washington are running in parallel rather than one resolving the other.