NATO chief ‘sure’ Trump’s Ukraine-Russia peace plan will succeed despite ‘difficult’ talks

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte expressed confidence on Monday that a Trump-backed Ukraine-Russia proposal will eventually bring lasting peace between the warring nations.

“It always takes two to tango, but it starts with a plan, and it starts with a president, President Trump, who wants to end this, as he did with Pakistan, India, as he has done so successfully in Gaza, as he has done with basically eliminating the nuclear capabilities of Iran, what he has done between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Rutte told “Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade.

“This is a president really pushing peace worldwide,” he continued. 

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President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte attend a plenary session at the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, on June 25. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

“This is a difficult one. He said that this would be one of the easier ones. No, it was not true. It is one of the more difficult ones, but I’m sure that we will get this done.”

Rutte’s comments come after U.S. and Ukrainian officials reported “progress” on ending the war with Russia following high-stakes talks in Geneva, Switzerland, on Sunday.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the talks “very worthwhile,” adding that they constituted the most productive day in “a very long time.”

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From “Fox & Friends”: Graphic outlines key components of the proposed peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. (Fox & Friends)

“The goal was to take 28 points or 26 points, depending on which version, as it continued to evolve, and try to narrow the ones that were open items, and we have achieved that today in a very substantial way,” Rubio said.

Points in the proposed plan would require Ukraine to cede certain territories – including the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Crimea and Zaporizhzhia regions – and granting no NATO membership for Ukraine, among other concessions.

Russia, in part, would be required to retreat from parts of Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk and $100 billion in frozen Russian assets would be used to rebuild Ukraine.

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“Obviously, like any final agreement, they’ll have to be agreed upon by the presidents, and there are a couple of issues that we need to continue to work on.”

Rutte called the talks an “important step,” adding that “more steps” will be coming soon.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.