NATO chief praised Trump for making Europe “mass payments” on defense before the summit

The Hague, Netherlands (AP) – NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte praised Donald Trump for making Europe “mass payments” as Allied leaders gathered in the Netherlands on Tuesday for a historic summit to hold the historic summit to focus on new defense spending for 32 member states or expand the division.

The U.S. President posted a screenshot of a private message from Rut while flying to the Air Force to The Hague: “Donald, you’ve driven us into a really very important moment in the United States, Europe and the world. You won’t be able to achieve anything for decades.”

“Europe will pay as much as possible, and it will be your victory,” Rutt wrote. NATO confirmed that he sent the message.

Rut doesn’t seem to care about Trump’s broadcast of his message.

“I absolutely have no trouble or problem because nothing is going to be secret,” Rut told reporters.

Allies will likely endorse 5% of their gross domestic product for their security in order to be able to fulfill the alliance’s plan to defend against external attacks. Trump said the United States doesn’t have to do this.

Despite this, Spain still says that this cannot and the goal is “unreasonable”. Slovakia said it reserves the right to decide how to achieve its goals through NATO’s new 2035 deadline.

“There is a problem in Spain. Spain doesn’t agree, and it’s very unfair to the rest of them,” Trump told reporters on the way to the two-day meeting.

In 2018, NATO’s NATO summit in Trump’s first term was revealed due to controversy over defense spending.

Before the meeting, Britain, France and Germany were committed to 5% of the goals. The host country, the Netherlands, is also on board. The countries Russia and its allies Belarus have previously promised to do so are closer to Ukraine’s borders.

Trump’s debut since returning to the White House was the focus of how the United States gets the historic military spending commitments of others in the security coalition, which effectively bent over its will.

But the spotlight has shifted to Trump’s decision to strike three nuclear-rich facilities in Iran, with the administration saying eroding Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and the president’s sudden announcement that Israel and Iran have reached a “complete and complete ceasefire.”

Ukraine also suffered from the conflict. It created the demand for weapons and ammunition that Kiev desperately wanted and attracted the attention of the world. The past NATO summits have been focused almost entirely on the war in Ukraine, and it is now in its fourth year.

Still, Lat insists that NATO can manage multiple conflicts at once.

“If we can’t cope with … the Middle East, it’s big and direct all the headlines, Ukraine, at the same time, we shouldn’t be in political and military business at all,” he said. “If you can only deal with one problem at a time, that’s it. And let others take over.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in The Hague for a meeting, although he was absent from a leadership meeting, aiming to seal a deal to increase military spending.

This has been a big change since the summit in Washington last year, when the military coalition’s weightlifting communiqué included a vow to provide long-term security assistance to Ukraine and a commitment to “a member of NATO on its irreversible path.”

Zelenskyy’s first formal engagement was his official residence opposite the summit venue with Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof.

However, in Ukraine’s clear mark of its status at the summit, no leader mentioned NATO. Ukraine’s bid to join the league has been deeply frozen by Trump.

“It makes me very clear that Ukraine is part of what we call the European Atlantic family,” Schoof told Zelenskyy, who in turn said he thinks the future of his country is a peaceful future, “of course, it’s part of the EU family.”

Schoof used the conference to announce a new package of support for Kyiv, which includes 100 radar systems to detect drones and to produce drones in the Netherlands for Ukraine in Kiev specifications.

The United States has not provided new public support to Ukraine since Trump took office six months ago.

Zelenskyy then met with Rutte and top EU officials to call for European investment in Ukraine’s defense industry, which could produce weapons and ammunition faster and cheaper than elsewhere in Europe.

“There is no doubt that we must stop Putin now and in Ukraine (Russian President Vladimir). But we must understand that his target exceeds Ukraine. European countries need to increase their defense spending.” He said that NATO’s new target of 5% GDP is “at the right level”.

He thanked them for saying in support of Ukraine’s solidarity: “I think this is the most important thing.”

___

An earlier version of this story canceled a quote about Trump’s first NATO summit in 2017.

Source link