Hello and welcome to the details of Trump shakes Nato with defence ultimatum, dodges commitment to protect Europe and now with the details
Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - US President Donald Trump, Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Dutch Queen Maxima, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte pose for a picture ahead of a dinner hosted by Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Dutch Queen Maxima, on the sidelines of a Nato Summit, at Huis ten Bosch Palace in The Hague, Netherlands June 24, 2025. — Reuters pic
THE HAGUE, June 25 — US President Donald Trump swept into Nato’s Hague summit Tuesday, with allies hoping a pledge to ramp up defence spending will keep the mercurial leader of the military superpower committed to protecting them.
Trump joined leaders from Nato’s 31 other members to kick off the two-day gathering with a dinner hosted by Dutch King Willem-Alexander in the ornate Orange Hall at his royal residence.
The alliance hopes to keep Trump bound to its mutual defence vow by meeting his demand for a headline figure of five percent of GDP on defence spending.
But Trump refused to say he was committed to Nato’s Article Five clause and protecting Europe in comments that will likely rattle his counterparts on the continent.
“Depends on your definition. There’s numerous definitions of Article Five,” Trump told journalists aboard Air Force One. “I’m committed to being their friend.”
To keep Trump on board, Nato members have thrashed out a compromise deal to dedicate 3.5 per cent to core military needs by 2035, and 1.5 percent to broader security-related areas such as cybersecurity and infrastructure.
Nato says the military build-up is crucial to deter Russia, which officials warn is rapidly rebuilding its forces depleted by the war in Ukraine and could be ready to attack the alliance in five years.
But it is just as important for keeping Trump engaged as Washington warns it may shift forces from Europe to face the threat from China.
“They’re going to be lifting it to five percent, that’s good,” Trump said. “It gives them much more power.”
But while the promise of more spending could win Trump over, deep divisions remain over the approach to Europe’s key security issue: Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Trump said he would probably meet Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky while in The Hague, with Kyiv hoping it can avoid a repeat of the pair’s infamous Oval Office bust-up.
‘Radical uncertainty’
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told an audience in The Hague that Nato’s “historic” spending pledge showed that “the Europe of defence has finally awakened”.
Alliance leaders meanwhile — many of whom are struggling to find the money that will be required — lined up to argue that the threats facing the continent required bold steps.
“We must navigate this era of radical uncertainty with agility,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in announcing the UK’s commitment to meet the target.
Starmer on Wednesday will formally announce that his country is buying a dozen F-35A fighters, capable of carrying atomic weapons to support Nato’s nuclear mission.
The purchase marks an expansion of Britain’s nuclear deterrence, which is currently limited to submarine-launched missiles.
A statement late Tuesday from Starmer’s office quoted Rutte as saying: “I strongly welcome today’s announcement,” calling it “yet another robust British contribution to Nato”.
Separately, powerhouse Germany announced plans to hit the 3.5-per cent figure for core defence needs by 2029 — six years before the timeline.
At the other end of the scale, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has risked Trump’s ire by insisting his country doesn’t have to meet the five percent target.
For its part, the Kremlin attacked Nato for its “rampant militarisation”, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying: “This is the reality that surrounds us.”
Trump-Zelensky meeting
Since storming back to power, Trump has upended the West’s approach to the three-year conflict by turning his back on Kyiv and opening the door to closer ties with Moscow.
Zelensky was set to play less of a central role than at recent Nato gatherings and will not attend the main working session.
But Ukraine’s president said he would discuss with Trump buying a package of weapons made up mainly of air defences.
Zelensky would also push Trump on imposing new sanctions on Russia as Moscow has stalled peace efforts being pressed by Washington, Kyiv said.
“There are no signs that Putin wants to stop this war. Russia rejects all peace proposals including those from the US. Putin only thinks about war,” the Ukrainian leader told a defence forum held alongside the summit.
Trump did briefly meet on the sidelines of the summit late Tuesday with Turkiye’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who urged “close dialogue” to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Rutte said allies would send the message that support for Kyiv was “unwavering and will persist”.
But despite his insistence that Ukraine’s bid for membership remains “irreversible”, Nato will avoid any mention of Kyiv’s push to join after Trump ruled it out. — AFP
These were the details of the news Trump shakes Nato with defence ultimatum, dodges commitment to protect Europe for this day. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information. To follow all our news, you can subscribe to the alerts system or to one of our different systems to provide you with all that is new.
It is also worth noting that the original news has been published and is available at Malay Mail and the editorial team at AlKhaleej Today has confirmed it and it has been modified, and it may have been completely transferred or quoted from it and you can read and follow this news from its main source.
