NATO leaders supported on Wednesday the significant increase in defense expenditure required by US President Donald Trump and reaffirmed their commitment to defend each other from any attack.
While Trump obtained what he was looking for at the brief summit, tailored, his NATO allies will feel relieved to commit to the fundamental principle of collective defense, after a less clear language on Tuesday.
In a five -point statement, NATO supported a higher defense target objective, of 5% of GDP, by 2035, in response not only to Trump, but also to the fears of Europeans that Russia represents a growing threat to their safety after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The brief statement of the 32 allies added: “We reaffirm our iron commitment to collective defense, enshrined in article 5 of the Washington Treaty: an attack against one is an attack against all.”
When asking him to clarify his position on article 5, Trump said: “I keep it. That’s why I am here. If I did not keep it, I would not be here.”
Trump had been demanding, without ambiguity, that other countries increased their defense expenditure to reduce the strong dependence of the United States NATO.
Despite the apparent coincidence, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, raised the question of the high import tariffs with which Trump threatened and the damage they could cause to transatlantic trade, as an obstacle to the increase in defense spending.
“They cannot come to us as allies and ask us to spend more, tell us that we will spend more on NATO, and at the same time start a commercial war. It is an aberration,” he told the press.
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NATO will emerge as a ‘strongest’ alliance, says Rutte
The NATO general secretary, Mark Rutte, who was host of the summit in his hometown, Hague, said that NATO would emerge as a “stronger, more just and most lethal.”
He had previously acknowledged that it was not easy for European countries and Canada to find extra money, but said it was vital to do it.
“My colleagues at the table are totally convinced that, given the Russian threat and the international security situation, there is no alternative,” said the former Dutch prime minister to the press in his hometown, The Hague.
The new spending objective, which will be achieved in the next 10 years, is an increase of hundreds of billions of dollars annually with respect to the current 2% objective of GDP, although it will be measured differently.
The countries would allocate 3.5% of GDP to basic defense, such as troops and weapons, and 1.5% to broader measures related to defense, such as cybersecurity, pipeline protection and the adaptation of roads and bridges for the transit of heavy military vehicles.
All NATO members have supported a statement that consecrates the objective, although Spain declared that it does not need to fulfill it and that it can fulfill its commitments spending much less.
Rutte denies it, but accepted a diplomatic maneuver with the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, as part of his efforts to give Trump a diplomatic victory and that the summit passed without setbacks.
Trump and Zelenski manage to meet
Rutte maintained the summit and its short final statement, focusing on spending commitment to try to avoid any friction with Trump.
The Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, had to settle for attending the previous dinner on Tuesday night instead of Wednesday’s main meeting, although he met with Trump separately after the conference.
The Kremlin accused NATO on Tuesday of being on a path of unbridled militarization and presenting Russia as a “demon of hell” to justify its great increase in defense expenditure.
With Reuters information
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