Welcome to Wider Europe, RFE/RL's newsletter focusing on the key issues concerning the European Union, NATO, and other institutions and their relationships with the Western Balkans and Europe's Eastern neighborhoods.

I'm RFE/RL Europe Editor Rikard Jozwiak, and this week I'm drilling down on my recent interview with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

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Wider Europe Briefing: Rutte On Peace Plans, Putin, And NATO's Future

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A Conversation With NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte

On November 24, I conducted a lengthyinterviewwith NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

Our conversation touched upon Ukraine as it heads into a critical phase of both the war with Russia and international diplomacy to conclude the fighting.

It also covered other topics, such as NATO-Russia relations, the US troop posture on NATOs eastern flank, and Georgia and Serbias growing ties with China.

A Crucial Week For Ukraine

Initially, I was supposed to have spoken to Mark Rutte in Prague earlier this year. Back then, the former Dutch Prime minister had to cancel due to an urgent meeting of the Franco-British Coalition of the Willing a loose grouping of Western countries aiming to provide more military support for Ukraine.

This time, it looked likely that the interview would be postponed once more.

A few days prior, news broke about a US-authored 28-pointplan to stop the warin Ukraine.

The document appeared to catch at least Kyivs European allies off guard, and many thought the document looked like a Kremlin wish list, as Russia would gain additional Ukrainian territories, Ukraines army would be capped, Moscow would be welcomed back into the G7 group of leading industrialized nations, Western sanctions would be gradually lifted, and an amnesty would be granted for war crimes.

The Europeans quickly started to draft more Ukraine-friendlycounterproposals.

Heading into the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyyaddressed his nation, admitting that Kyiv faced a difficult choice, potentially losing a key partner in the United States or betraying some of the countrys key principles.

This was before US and Ukrainian diplomatsgathered in Genevato try to hash out details of the plan with rumors that Zelenskyy might head to the United States for direct talks with President Donald Trump before the Thanksgiving long weekend later this week.

Despite this and with days full of phone calls -- including to the US and Ukrainian Presidents -- the head of the military alliance found time to speak to us.

28-Point Plan Forms 'A Basis'

So, what did he make of the 28-point proposal?

I'm not going through every line of that plan, Rutte repeated more than once during the talk but added: obviously some of the elements have to be really thought through. But what you've seen yesterday [November 23] in the meeting in Geneva that as a basis it helped to bring Ukraine and the US very close on the way forward.

Being known as one of few European leaders who truly has Trumps ear, the Dutchman was keen to show that he shares the same vision as the US president when it comes to a final outcome: the end state has to be -- and this is what Donald Trump has been working on since February -- is a sovereign Ukraine going forward, a strong nation, and Russia never trying again to attack it. That's what we are trying to achieve -- all of us.

But how this will be achieved still needs to be worked out.