European allies should not be concerned with the commitment of the United States to NATO, said Mark Rutte, head of the Military Alliance, on Tuesday (24), speaking before a summit that will probably sign a new and great spending goal.
The two-day meeting aims to signal Russian President Vladimir Putin that NATO is united, despite previous criticism of US President Donald Trump to the alliance, and determined to expand and update his defenses to prevent any Moscow attack.
“There is a total commitment from US president and senior leadership of the US with NATO,” Rutte said in a public forum before the formal opening of the summit. He added, however, that this support was accompanied by an expectation that European countries and Canada spend more in defense.
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Kremlin accused NATO of being on the way to unbridled militarization and wanting to portray Russia as a “hell demon” to justify a large increase in defense spending.
The summit and its final statement will be short and focused on meeting Trump’s appeal to spend 5% of GDP in defense – a significant leap from the current goal of 2%. This should be achieved both through further spending on military items and the inclusion of wider spending related to safety in the new goal.
Looking relaxed before Trump’s expected arrival later on Tuesday, Rutte described the issue of spending such as “a huge stone in the shoe, a big discomfort, which is the fact that we are not spending enough as Europeans and Canadians, and they want us to match what the US is spending.”
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The war between Israel and Iran and the uncertain status of a ceasefire announced at night by Trump make the summit much less predictable than Rutte-a former Holland Prime Minister who is organizing the meeting in his hometown-and other NATO member countries would like.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he plans to meet Trump in The Hague – although Zelenskiy will not participate in the summit itself, as NATO authorities have sought to avoid any confrontation between Trump and other Ukraine war leaders.
