Trump, Zelenskyy hold talks at NATO summit dominated by defence spending

Australia Broadcast Center

7 hours ago

Donald Trump has said the US may send Ukraine more of the air-defence missiles Kyiv relies on to defend itself from Russian attacks.
It comes after the US president met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy for what the Ukranian president called "long and substantive" talks on the sidelines of a NATO summit in The Hague.
Speaking at a press conference afterward, Mr Trump said he planned to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin to get peace negotiations back on track.
Asked about the Patriot air-defence missiles, he said they were "very hard to get", but added: "We are going to see if we can make some of them available."
He said that it was possible Mr Putin had territorial ambitions beyond Ukraine and that he planned to speak to his Russian counterpart "very soon".
"Look, Vladimir Putin really has to end that war," he said, describing the conflict as "more difficult [to solve] than other wars".
The US president also appeared to make reference to his notorious Oval Office clash with Mr Zelenskyy earlier this year, but indicated the bilateral meeting at the summit had gone better this time.
"You know, we had a little rough times sometimes, but he couldn't have been nicer," he said.
Mr Zelenskyy posted on X that he had had a "long and substantive" discussion with Mr Trump about the war "covering all the truly important issues".
He also said he and Mr Trump discussed the production of drones.
"We discussed the protection of our people with the President — first and foremost, the purchase of American air defense systems to shield our cities, our people, churches, and infrastructure," he said.
"Ukraine is ready to buy this equipment and support American weapons manufacturers. Europe can help. We also discussed the potential for co-production of drones. We can strengthen each other."
Ukrainian and Russian delegations held peace talks in Ankara earlier this year which ended with little progress.
It came as NATO countries backed what Mr Trump called a "historic" hike in defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP in member states.
The US has been pushing European nations to spend greater sums on their militaries as the Pentagon pivots its defence posture towards the Middle East and Indo-Pacific.
The 32 leaders endorsed a final summit statement saying: "Allies commit to invest 5 per cent of GDP annually on core defence requirements as well as defence- and security-related spending by 2035 to ensure our individual and collective obligations."
The show of unity vindicated NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte's billing of the summit as "transformational," even though it papered over divisions.
Mr Trump called the spending boost "something that no one really thought possible. And they said, 'You did it, sir. You did it.' Well, I don't know if I did it, but I think I did."
Countries neighbouring Russia are among those embracing greater military build-up, including Poland, the three Baltic states and Nordic countries.
NATO's European heavyweights the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands have also committed to spending 5 per cent of their GDP on defence in coming years.
In their statement, the leaders said they were united "in the face of profound security threats and challenges, in particular the long-term threat posed by Russia."
Finnish President Alexander Stubb said the agreement "is a big win, I think, for both President Trump and I think it's also a big win for Europe".
But several NATO members have expressed reservations about the target, with Belgium conceding it was unlikely to reach that threshold and Slovakia saying it reserved the right to determine its own spending.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who has been staunchly opposed to the increased military spending target, labelled the 2035 deadline "unreasonable".
"In today's summit, NATO wins and Spain wins something very important for our society, which is security and the welfare state," Mr Sánchez said.
That decision earnt Spain a rebuke from the US president, who described its commitment of 2 per cent of GDP on defence as "terrible".
"You know, what we're going to do? We're negotiating with Spain on a trade deal. We're going to make them pay twice as much."
Reuters/AP/AFP