Europe digital editor
JOHN THYS/AFPNato leaders meeting in The Hague have agreed to ramp up defence spending to 5% of their countries’ economic output by 2025, following months of pressure from US President Donald Trump.
In a statement they said they were united against “profound security threats and challenges, in particular the long-term threat posed by Russia to Euro-Atlantic security and the persistent threat of terrorism”.
The Hague summit has been described by several leaders as historic, and Secretary General Mark Rutte said decisions made on Wednesday would include continued support for Ukraine while pushing for peace.
The leaders also said they were reaffirming their “ironclad commitment to collective defence” – known as the mutual security guarantee if any one member came under attack.
The commitment to raise defence spending over 10 years involves at least 3.5% of each member state’s GDP on defence expenditure by 2035, plus up to 1.5% on a broadly defined series of investments loosely connected to security infrastructure.
“For too long, one ally, the United States, carried too much of the burden,” Secretary General Mark Rutte said before the meeting began, adding: “That changes today.”
The US president said it would be a “great victory for everybody, I think. We will be equalised shortly, and that’s the way it has to be”.
However, Spain in particular had objected to the 5% target ahead of the meeting. Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said Madrid was making an “enormous effort” to reach a target of 2.1%. “The discussion about the percentage is misguided,” he told Spanish radio.
The Belgian government had also expressed reservations, but Prime Minister Bart de Wever told reporters that while it wouldn’t be easy “3.5% within 10 years is a realistic goal”.
The Hague summit, which began with a dinner on Tuesday night hosted by King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima, has been scaled back so Wednesday’s set-piece gathering of leaders was due to last only two and a half hours, with a short communique agreed at the end.
Rutte told Nato leaders that they were meeting at a “dangerous moment”, and that the defence alliance’s guarantee of mutual defence – “an attack on one is an attack on all, sends a powerful message”.
As the leaders gathered for the traditional “family photo”, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez appeared to stand by himself at the far end of the group.
Slovakia had also raised concerns about the big hike in defence spending, but President Peter Pellegrini indicated that Bratislava would not stand in the way.
AFPTrump’s visit to The Hague was his first trip to a Nato summit since 2019 and he was due to meet Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines afterwards.
However, the US president was more keen to talk about conflict in the Middle East than the war in Ukraine, when he spoke to reporters on Wednesday.
“He’s got a little difficulty, Zelensky, a nice guy,” said Trump. “I’ve spoken to Putin a lot… he volunteered help on Iran. I said do me a favour, help us on Russia, not Iran.”
In their final communique, Nato member states stressed their commitments to providing support for Ukraine, “whose security contributes to ours”, adding that direct contributions to Kyiv’s defence and its defence industry would be included in assessment of allies’ defence spending.
The US president had earlier appeared to raise questions about the alliance’s mutual defence guarantee, known as Article Five.
“There’s numerous definitions of Article Five, you know that right?” he told reporters on Air Force One on Tuesday.
Mark Rutte later sought to quash concerns about Trump’s comments, insisting that his European colleagues should stop worrying about the US commitment to the Western alliance and focus on investing in defence and supporting Ukraine.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Nato was as relevant and important now as it had ever been: “We live in a very volatile world and today is about the unity of Nato, showing that strength. We’re bigger than we were before, we’re stronger than we were before.”
