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Mr Rutte’s alert comes amid fears among Nato allies that President Donald Trump could pull troops stationed in Europe after launching a six-month review in July of its military presence there.

But the Nato chief insisted he was “not worried” about the possibility of reductions in American personnel on the continent.

He said: “We need the US to be strong also in the Indo-Pacific because if China moves against Taiwan or anywhere else in the first island chain in the Indo-Pacific, no doubt in the minds of anyone in the senior strategic positions in the US or in Europe, we have no doubt that China will force the Russians to move against us here.

“So it will be a two-theatre situation. Not only the Indo-Pacific, also the Euro-Atlantic. For all these reasons, we have to step up in Europe. That’s what we are doing.”

His words come amid a series of dark developments on the continent which are ringing alarm bells in Britain.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron has summoned party leaders – with the exception of Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Melenchon – for crisis talks over the “deteriorating” situation.

In a statement confirming the meeting, the Elysee said: “Faced with the rapid deterioration of the international situation in recent days, the President of the Republic has invited, the leaders of parties represented in Parliament, to a meeting on the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine and their consequences in France on security and energy.”

The spokeswoman for the French presidency confirmed that “military authorities and intelligence services will share information” during the talks.

In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned that Moscow is plotting “hybrid” drone and missile attacks on nations that back Ukraine.

Speaking before his Parliament on Thursday, Mr Tusk said the planned strikes would be designed to appear “accidental,” with the aim of undermining Nato members’ willingness to trigger the alliance’s collective defence provisions if one of them were attacked.

The Polish Prime Minister delivered his warning after a Russian warship was accused of opening fire on a Danish helicopter in a chilling attack over Europe’s skies.

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The Danish armed forces said one of the air force’s Fennec helicopters was fired at with flares during a routine photographic operation of a Russian frigate in international waters.

The Danish Government summoned the Russian ambassador over the incident, which Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen described as “reckless” and insisted was designed to “intimidate and divide”.

In Lithuania, Nato jets shot down a drone on Monday after the unidentified aircraft breached the country’s airspace.

And in Belarus, thousands of troops are carrying out drills with tanks and drone units near a stretch of land dubbed Nato’s “weakest link” on Poland’s border.

The exercises are taking place partly near the Suwalki Gap, a 104-kilometre stretch of the Polish-Lithuanian border which is the only land link between the Baltic states and the rest of Nato.

It also separates Russian-allied Belarus from Kaliningrad, an exclave of Russia on the Baltic coast.

In late August, CIA director John Ratcliffe flew to Moscow in a rare face-to-face meeting with the Kremlin to discuss Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The last time a CIA director made such a visit was shortly before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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It has been suggested Mr Ratcliffe warned Russian officials to not escalate the war by using a nuclear weapon or by targeting Kyiv’s Nato allies.

The Kremlin, in a statement issued after the meeting, said it was “too early to say if the deep crisis in US-Russia relations can be overcome”.

And just after midnight on Friday morning, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch issued a warning of her own to Labour.

“Macron and Tusk are speaking and acting with an urgency that makes the latest reports about Russia violating Lithuanian airspace even more concerning,” she said.

“It is not clear that the Government is taking the threat from Russia seriously enough.

“Its own intelligence assessment says an attack on Nato could come by 2030, while repeated smaller-scale incursions are already taking place.

“It comes only weeks after CIA Director John Ratcliffe made an unannounced visit to Moscow, reportedly to warn Russia against attacking a Nato member.

“Our European allies are responding with growing urgency, yet the Government still will not say what it intends to do on defence.

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“The Nato Secretary-General was in Britain only yesterday calling for that path to be set out, and I agree with him.”

Now, Mrs Badenoch has demanded Labour explain what it knows about the situation in eastern Europe, how it perceives the threat and what its plans are.

And she warned the Prime Minister’s “social security” admission will have set tongues wagging in the Kremlin.

“We will put national security first and work with the Government where necessary, but when our own PM talks of national security not coming at the expense of social security, Labour MPs should remember: this was heard not only in Westminster or Manchester; it was also heard in Moscow,” the Tory leader said.

John Foreman, Britain’s former defence attache to Moscow, said there is “an obvious risk of miscalculation and a spiral of escalation” if Russia pursues a hybrid war.

He called for “resolve, calm, and channels for risk management with Russia” in response.

But just weeks ago, a senior diplomatic source told The Times a breakdown in dialogue between London and Moscow was “deeply concerning” after British-made drones were used by Ukraine to strike targets in Russia.

No back-channel military contact was said to have taken place after the strikes.

Whether that has resumed remains unclear.

“It’s important to maintain those channels of communication, especially between hostile states,” a source told the newspaper.