Laura Gotzi and Paul Kirby
BBC News
Reuters
Security is strict at NATO Summit – President Trump is the first to start since 2019
German Prime Minister Friedrich Merz warns that the Russian president only understands the language of armed forces, and that Tuesday’s “historical” NATO summit in the Hague aims to ensure peace in Europe for generations.
Merz told German parliament hours before the summit that Vladimir Putin remained determined that Ukraine should be part of Russia, and that Berlin would pay a “fair share” to defend Europe.
US President Donald Trump is on his way to The Hague for his first NATO summit since 2019, with all 32 leaders pledging to spend 3.5% of the population’s production, bringing an additional 1.5% on the infrastructure involved.
Ahead of the summit, hidden in the Israeli-Iran conflict, NATO executive director Mark Latte told her European colleagues to stop worrying about their commitment to the US alliance and focus on investing in Ukraine’s defense and support.
He claimed that the US president and senior leaders had a “full commitment” to NATO, which hoped would match US military spending.
Latte said Europe and Canada are committed to more than $35 billion (£26 billion) to Ukraine’s military support this year.
Ten people were killed in the Russian attack on Ukraine on Tuesday, and the German prime minister said attempts to bring Russia to the negotiation table have been unsuccessful.
Seven people were killed and another 70 injured in missile attacks on the eastern city of Dnipro, according to the region’s chief Sereiraisac. He said many of the victims were in shelter at the time of the attack.
Previous missile strikes against Smee in the northeast killed three people, including children.
Ukrainian Voldimir Zelensky arrives in The Hague and is set to meet Donald Trump on the sidelines of the NATO summit. It will be their first encounter since they met at Pope Francis’ funeral in April at the Vatican.
Omar Havana/Getty Images
Zelensky (L) was greeted by the NATO Secretary General when he arrived in The Hague.
NATO members are expected to approve a major new investment plan that will increase their defensive investment benchmark to 5% of GDP.
Many of the allies are far below their commitment to spend 3.5% of their GDP on defense by 2035, but the German government on Tuesday backed the budget contract to achieve that goal by 2029.
EUR 62.4 billion (£53 billion) will be spent on defense in 2025, rising to EUR 152.8 billion in 2029, with some funding through debt and special funds.
“We are not doing that in favor of the United States and its president. Russia is actively and actively putting security and freedom in the entire European Atlantic, and we are doing this from our own views and beliefs.”
During the summit, Mertz will meet British Prime Minister Kiel and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Mark Latte has spent most of the nine months since becoming NATO Executive Director, and has now made allies commit to a 5% target. The figure exceeds the current 2% guidelines for double NATO members, and when President Trump first set it in January, it was mostly unthinkable and unrealistic.
As the two-day NATO summit has been reduced, there will be less than three hours of work session on Wednesday and a five-paragraph statement to address President Trump, apparently following a dinner on Tuesday hosted by the King of the Netherlands.
The wording of the commitment in the statement is important.
3.5% of the target spending covers core defense requirements, while 1.5% is spent on “defense-related spending.” This is a decent and broad expression that includes investments in everything from cybersecurity to infrastructure.
To reach the 3.5% core defense spending target, most NATO countries still require significant adjustments. Of the 32 allies, 27 spent less than 3%, far below the 2% threshold set by the 2014 Alliance.
On Monday, Prime Minister Kiel Starmer pledged that the UK will achieve its 5% target by 2035.
He said the UK must “navigate this era of fundamental uncertainty with an agility, speed and a clear sense of national interest.” The UK government is expected to spend 2.6% of its GDP on core defense within two years, adding 1.5% in defense-related regions.
EPA
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez argues that his country should be exempt from its 5% spending target
At the very bottom of the Lang is Spain, whose defensive spending is less than 1.3%.
Madrid will need to more than double its funds to meet Latte’s new targets. This has long been resisting the Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, claiming that “not only is it irrational, it will be counterproductive.”
Also importantly, during a period of Sanchez’s government wandering, it is not popular at home, especially among the left-wing governing coalition.
On Sunday, Sanchez said he reached a deal that Spain thinks has been exempt from the target. “NATO is absolutely certain that Spain has to spend 3.5% to get there,” he said Monday.
Sánchez’s proposal for lowering spending thresholds was sufficient for Belgium and Slovakia to express interest in exemptions as well.
“We can assure you that our diplomats have worked so hard to get a flexibility mechanism for weeks,” said Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot. Brussels’ spending is currently at 1.3%, and Slovakia also said it reserves the right to decide when to meet new targets.
Despite their comments, all 32 states are expected to sign up for a new pledge.
The train trip from Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam was severely confused after the cable was damaged in the fire as NATO leaders and more than a dozen partner state leaders headed for the Hague.
Security Minister David Van Wheel said sabotage cannot be ruled out. “It could be an activist group, it could be another country. It could be anything,” he told public broadcaster Nos. “The most important thing right now is to fix the cables and move traffic back.”
