Trump arrives in The Hague for Nato summit as members agree to increase defence spending
US president
Donald Trump
has arrived in The Hague where he will attend a landmark Nato summit on Wednesday.
The gathering is expected to substantially boost military spending in support of
Ukraine
and as a deterrent against further
Russian
aggression in Europe.
Mr Trump is expected to be told that Nato member states – with a special exemption for Spain which has been criticised by Mr Trump – have agreed to an increase of 5 per cent of GDP in defence spending.
The two-tier agreement designed by Nato secretary general Mark Rutte commits the alliance to an increase of 3.5 per cent of GDP for military spending combined with an additional increase of 1.5 per cent of GDP for dual-use costs, such as infrastructure and cybersecurity.
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Under the new agreement, the increases will come into effect incrementally by 2035 – although countries on Nato's eastern flank, such as Estonia, insist this lead-in time is too long to prevent further aggression by Moscow.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived earlier on Tuesday for a series of meetings on the margins of the summit – although, because Ukraine is not a Nato member, he will not attend the leaders' North Atlantic Council meeting on Wednesday to seal the military spending deal.
In a brief comment, he said he expected to meet Mr Trump for talks which remained to be scheduled.
Despite past differences, he praised Mr Trump for continuing to engage with Russian president Vladimir Putin, whose all-out invasion of Ukraine began the war in February 2022.
Mr Zelenskiy's first meeting was with caretaker Dutch prime minister Dick Schoof – formerly head of the country's intelligence service – at his official residence a short distance from the summit venue.
At that meeting, Mr Zelenskiy appealed for more European support for Ukraine's defence industry and heard that the Netherlands has unilaterally allocated another aid package of €175 million for Ukraine, including €80 million for drones and radar equipment.
Afterwards, he addressed a joint session of both houses of the Dutch parliament, where he expressed concerns about Moscow's links to other 'bloody regimes' and called for strict enforcement of sanctions.
As the Nato leaders gathered, Mr Rutte told a public forum he believed there was 'total commitment' to Nato on the part of Mr Trump and the US – despite the president's persistent complaints that Europe and Canada had not been paying enough.
Mr Rutte also insisted that the US decision to strike three nuclear enrichment facilities in Iran over the weekend would not affect Nato's combined focus on supporting Ukraine.
'Today, Nato's military edge is being challenged by a rapidly rearming Russia, backed by Chinese technology and armed with Iranian and North Korean weapons,' he warned.
'Only Europe and North America together can rise to meet the challenge of that rearmament.'
However, there was an embarrassing end to the day for Mr Rutte when an apparently private email he sent to President Trump on board Air Force One was retweeted by the president.
Flattering him for his 'decisive action in Iran', Mr Rutte added, 'You are flying into another big success in The Hague.'
Mr Trump had been expected to stay with his entourage at a hotel on the North Sea coast. However, in a late change to his schedule, he accepted a rare invitation to overnight at Huis ten Bosch palace, home to King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima and their three daughters.
Mr Trump boarded Air Force One at Andrews air base around lunchtime, landed at Schiphol airport in early evening and travelled directly to the palace for a formal banquet attended by 45 heads of state and government, including Mr Zelenskiy.
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Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Letters to the Editor, June 25th: On restoring peace, subsidising house prices and US student visa rules
Sir, –What a coup! President Donald Trump has surprised us all with the ceasefire between Iran and Israel. America's wise restraint in not responding militarily to the attack on its Al Udeid airbase in Qatar sets a new precedent for superpower restraint. Hopefully, China will appreciate, and Russia will stop its aggression on Ukraine. Israel must now adopt a ceasefire in Gaza and respond constructively to President Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine's letter earlier this month. More than that, Trump should team up with French president, Emmanuel Macron, and Sauidi crown prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, to make a success of the planned UN conference on Palestine. The best way forward is for Trump to lift the US veto on Palestine's membership in the UN, already recognised by an overwhelming majority of its members, including Ireland. That would boost the Abraham Accords, as it would rejoin the Arab Peace Initiative and settle conflict in the region durably. Israel could at last become an integrated state in its home region. READ MORE Its own internal governance reforms must follow suit. All of this falls imminently on the 80th anniversary of the UN Charter, the call to conscience for which was launched by the peace reflection group of former UN officials, and has been endorsed by Mary Robinson and a plethora of other world leaders, including not least former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon. – Yours, etc, FRANCIS M. O'DONNELL, (former UN diplomat), Vienna, Austria. Sir, – Reputedly, when Gandhi was asked about his view on Christian principles, he responded that he greatly approved of them but suggested that perhaps the Christians ought to follow them. The same, with far more validity, can also be said of UN member states and the principles enunciated in the UN Charter supposedly adopted by them. It is well past the time finally to recognise that the (UN) emperor has no (legitimate) clothes. The ongoing support of the US for the war crimes and genocide committed by Israel in Gaza and the United States' bombing of Iran are the last straws. That is not to say I support either the Iranian regime or Hamas. I unreservedly condemn both. But for far too long now most, if not all, of the permanent members of the UN Security Council, who control the UN, have made an utter mockery of the UN Charter. The UN has passed countless resolutions in respect of Israel and Gaza and all have been wholly ignored, indeed flouted and mocked, by Israel with the open support of the US. The US has been engaged in several wars and invasions of other countries over the past several decades – for, at best, dubious and self-serving reasons – and indeed sought, and sometimes even obtained, UN approval for the same. The US and Russia have had the temerity to use the UN to provide cover for their unlawful activities and wrongdoing. This needs to stop now. Ireland should immediately withdraw from the UN and join with like-minded countries, of which there are very many, to found a genuinely representative world body in which no one country would have either automatic membership of the governing council or a veto. This new body would of course need to have real enforcement powers and an effective world court. It would not be difficult to do: the UN Charter agreed by all countries already exists. Of course, the United States, Russia, Israel, etc, will not join this new body – at least not right away –– but what harm would that do? – Yours, etc EAMON DILLON, Farranshone, Limerick. US and student visa rules Sir, – The new requirement for J-1 visa applicants to submit social media details will affect more than just summer students bound for the US. ( 'US visa applicants must disclose all social media ', June 24th). The J-1 visa is typically the primary and most common visa classification for research scholars and visiting professors coming to the US on a temporary, non-immigrant basis, especially for sabbaticals, academic exchanges, and short-term research appointments. At the very least, this requirement is likely to cause some to hesitate before choosing the US and toward other destinations with more transparent or less invasive visa processes. – Yours, etc, JAMES QUINN, Rochester, USA. Sir, – If a student seeking a J1 visa has posted their opinion of Trump as an a**hole and that the Israeli actions in Gaza are disgraceful will they get that visa? If so, then that's great for free speech. However, if they don't then is that not telling us the US has fundamentally changed to an adversary of free speech? – Yours, etc, LEE HEALY, Ballincollig, Cork. Sir, – If the prospect of sharing their social media content with American authorities to acquire a student visa causes 'fear and distress', then maybe America isn't the right place for these students to go. Find a better fit or wait for a different administration. – Yours, etc, DARA O'DONNELL, Portobello, Dublin 8. Seeing red over College Green Sir, – Do we really need a civic plaza in the centre of Dublin at a cost of €80 million? Admittedly, it's not enough to solve the housing crisis, but to spend it on a traffic-free, pedestrian and cycle plaza, seems to me, a complete waste of taxpayers money. Unlike some other European cities, where one can sit and soak up the ambience generated by cafes, ice-cream parlours, restaurants, bars, boutique shops etc., in glorious sunshine, Dubliners and visitors alike, are expected to sit and admire the Bank of Ireland, Trinity College and a few 19th century buildings, with just one or two places where you can get a take-away coffee? Spectacular as they may be, would anyone want to look at them for longer than it takes to lick a '99.' without being able to rest comfortably? The architect's image in The Irish Times (June 24th), shows two long backless benches which might accommodate 30 adults – if you don't mind sitting shoulder to shoulder with a complete stranger, as they sip their take-away coffee, and risk getting hit by an e-scooter whizzing by, as you stand up, or get soaked to the skin by a frequent Irish summer's downpour. There is not a single waste bin in sight to dispose of an empty coffee cup and the ground surface depicted is hardly conducive to wheelchairs, rollators or prams – never mind bicycles! Methinks, it is a case of back to the drawing board. – Yours, etc, BARBARA KELLY, Greystones, Co Wicklow. Fallout from not upgrading the A5 Sir, – The news that the A5 upgrade will not now happen will be greeted with dismay by all of us who travel that particular portion of road from Donegal to Dublin It's time for the Irish Government to upgrade the Sligo to Letterkenny road thus giving the communities in Donegal some hope of reducing the long journey to Dublin and beyond. We need to stop relying on our neighbours to partner on this much-needed upgrade while they sort out the rights of landowners and climate change impacts which apparently trump the lives of those killed and injured on this notorious road. – Yours, etc, JOHN O'CONNELL, Letterkenny, Co Donegal. Developing a housing policy Sir, – Dr John McCartney's article ( 'Developers are bluffing when they say lower prices would undermine viability of house building ,' June 24th) misreads Ireland's housing crisis. Persistent affordability pressures arise not from surplus capital but from a structural undersupply of homes and a stubbornly high cost floor. Housing Commission data show completions still trail demographic need. Reoccupying vacant units helps, yet it cannot bridge the gap, especially in urban areas where demand is strongest. Cost is the second constraint. Repeated Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland studies confirm that, even on free land, building apartments to today's safety, accessibility and sustainability standards often prices them beyond reach. Developers are not on 'strike' – they build when schemes are viable. Targeted supports such as help to buy and the first home scheme – both with price caps – therefore remain essential. They narrow the affordability gap without fuelling price inflation and give lenders and builders the certainty to start projects. Abandoning supply targets or tightening credit would simply throttle delivery and push prices higher. What Ireland now needs is evidence-led policy that accelerates planning reform, lowers delivery costs and mobilises public and private capital behind new supply across all tenures. Yours, etc, PAT FARRELL, Chief executive, Irish Institutional Property, Upper Pembroke St, Dublin. Sir, – With respect to John McCartney's article on housing I would like to make the following point: While it is refreshing to hear an advocate for less government interference in the housing market, the help to buy scheme is simply giving young working people there own tax money back. These young workers are already heavily taxed to fund the social housing of others and the various other subsidies that mostly end up in the bank accounts of landlords. While it is technically an intervention in the housing market, it is one of the few ways that young people have to compete with the Government, institutional buyers and other landlords. – Yours, etc, ALAN COAKLEY, Co Roscommon. Sir, – There abides, but soon to be evicted and despatched, a neighbour. He lives with his mate and brood on the southern end of a substantial top-soil mound which has become wild and richly overgrown having been without human interference for some years now. An ideal location, with cover, for a pheasant to inhabit, set up a home and start a family. Stored top-soil mounds are valuable. Rich horticulture land is also valuable, but has a much slower, generational monetary return. Developers procured this land perhaps 15 years ago built on part of it and now are set to fully 'develop' it. Developers become destroyers then when it's time to build directly on removed top-soil mounds and 'fully develop' the land for housing. Time has come to access this resource, sell and recover their loss for storage then scour the area fit for housing. Heavy earth moving machinery will make short work of a fertile mound. Our pal sits on his patch and raucously proclaims to all that this is his place in the world. His partner and chicks feel safe and secure here in their elevated idyllic ground nest. An irony is that he and his family will not see the middle of July, having been evicted and despatched before then. Not only should we mourn the loss of a pheasant family but also the loss of rich horticultural land. We need homes, but the Government, planners, et al, need to get their act together, find brownfield sites and build there. We need developers not destroyers. – Yours, etc, PASCAL BYRNE, Rush, Co Dublin. Seriously, though Sir, – The letters published in The Irish Times recently seem to be of a longer and more serious nature. Time for a regime change perhaps? – Yours, etc, DAVID CURRAN, Knocknacarra, Galway. Sir, – Monday's edition of The Irish Times felt very skimpy to me. The shop assistant noticed my bemused look and said: 'You're right and you're not the first: there's no news today'. If only. – Yours, etc, MICHAEL KEEGAN, Booterstown, Co Dublin. Spare a thought for school secretaries Sir, – As schools begin to close their doors this week and teaching staff disperse to the four corners of the world, spare a thought for the most overworked and underpaid secretarial cohort in the country. School secretaries will over the summer ensure that everything is in order for schools to return in late August. Despite a new contractual system, schools struggle to hold on to excellent secretarial staff who are quite predictably lured away by more lucrative and less taxing positions elsewhere. Schools have struggled with staffing issues in recent years and substitution has proven difficult but the show goes on. However, most principals will concede that if their secretary is absent they are irreplaceable and that school administration grinds to a halt. Quite simply, to ensure that these wonderful people stay in our schools, their conditions of employment must change and they should be rewarded for their skills and versatility. This is a well beaten drum at this stage and one to which most ministers for education have chosen not to listen. I ask the current Minister for Education, Helen McEntee, to give this matter some thought and consideration. She would be doing both the secretarial community and the whole school community an enormous service by tackling this issue. – Yours, etc, AIDAN BOYLE, (Retired principal), Co Dublin. Drawing tattoos conclusions Sir, – I refer to Dr Pat McGrath's letter ( June 23rd) and would point out that tattoos have a rich and diverse history spanning thousands of years, with evidence of tattooing found in various cultures around the world. Tattoos have cultural, spiritual, social and artistic significance to numerous groups and societies around the world and it is simply wrong, and insulting to say that years ago they were confined to sailors, prisoners and psychiatric patients. I got my first and only (so far) tattoo at the age 62 having met a 100- year-old US army veteran on Omaha Beach in Normandy. The tattoo reads '6th June 1944', the date of the Allied invasion of Normandy and I got it to commemorate that monumental day and those who lost their lives that day. I am very proud of my tattoo and very happy that I have it. – Yours, etc, GARY DOYLE, Straffan, Co Kildare. Duff suggestion Sir, – If Damien Duff was unhappy with the performance of the Shelbourne team of which he was manager, why did he not just duff them up and get a result? – Yours, etc, MICHAEL GREENE. Spiddal, Co Galway.
RTÉ News
4 hours ago
- RTÉ News
US strikes set back Iran nuclear programme by months
US airstrikes did not destroy Iran's nuclear capability and only set it back by a few months, according to one initial US intelligence assessment, as a shaky ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump took hold between Iran and Israel. The preliminary assessment by the US Defense Intelligence Agency was disclosed to Reuters by three sources familiar with the matter. One of the sources said Iran's enriched uranium stocks had not been eliminated, and in fact, the country's nuclear program may have been set back only a month or two. The assessment contradicted Mr Trump's assertion that the weekend strikes had succeeded in destroying Tehran's nuclear program and raised questions about further US military action if indeed the program survived the intense aerial bombardment. The White House said the intelligence report was "flat out wrong." Mr Trump's administration told the UN Security Council that its weekend strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities had "degraded" Iran's nuclear program, short of Mr Trump's earlier assertion that the facilities had been "obliterated". Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel in its 12 days of war with Iran had removed the threat of nuclear annihilation and was determined to thwart any attempt by Tehran to revive its programme. "We have removed two immediate existential threats to us - the threat of nuclear annihilation and the threat of annihilation by 20,000 ballistic missiles," he said in video remarks issued by his office. Israel launched the surprise air war on 13 June, hitting Iranian nuclear sites where it said Iran was trying to develop an atomic bomb and killing top military commanders in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq. Iran, which says its uranium enrichment programme is for peaceful purposes and denies trying to build nuclear weapons, retaliated with a series of missile barrages on Israeli cities. Earlier today, both Iran and Israel signalled that the air war between the two nations had concluded, at least for now, after Mr Trump scolded them for violating a ceasefire he announced. Iranian preisdent hails 'great victory' Israel's military lifted restrictions on activity across the country at 8pm local time (6pm Irish time), and officials said Ben Gurion Airport, the country's main airport near Tel Aviv, had reopened. Iran's airspace likewise will be reopened, state-affiliated Nour news reported. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country had successfully ended the war in what he called a "great victory," according to Iranian media. Mr Pezeshkian also told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that Tehran was ready to resolve differences with the United States, according to official news agency IRNA. A senior White House official said Mr Trump brokered the ceasefire deal with Mr Netanyahu, and other administration officials were in touch with the Iranians. Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani secured Tehran's agreement during a call with Iranian officials, an official briefed on the negotiations said. Both Israel and Iran took hours to acknowledge they had accepted the ceasefire and accused each other of violating it, underscoring the fragility of the truce between the two bitter foes and the challenge of achieving lasting peace between them. Mr Trump scolded both sides but aimed especially stinging criticism at Israel, telling the close US ally to "calm down now." He later said Israel called off further attacks at his command. Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, said he told his US counterpart, Pete Hegseth, that his country would respect the ceasefire unless Iran violated it. Mr Pezeshkian likewise said Iran would honour the ceasefire as long as Israel did, according to Iranian media. Whether the Israel-Iran truce can hold is a major question given the deep mistrust between the two nations. But Mr Trump's ability to broker a ceasefire showed Washington retains some leverage in the volatile region. Israeli Armed Forces Chief of staff Eyal Zamir said a "significant chapter" of the conflict had concluded but the campaign against Iran was not over. He said the military would refocus on its war against Iran-backed Hamas militants in Gaza. Iran's military command also warned Israel and the United States to learn from the "crushing blows" it delivered during the conflict. Iranian authorities said 610 people were killed in their country by Israeli strikes and 4,746 injured. Iran's retaliatory bombardment killed 28 people in Israel, the first time its air defences were penetrated by large numbers of Iranian missiles. Oil prices plunged, and stock markets rallied worldwide in a sign of confidence inspired by the ceasefire, which allayed fears of disruption to critical oil supplies from the Gulf. Ceasefire violations? Earlier in the day, Mr Trump admonished Israel with an obscenity in an extraordinary outburst at an ally whose air war he had joined two days before by dropping massive bunker-buster bombs on Iran's underground nuclear sites. Before departing the White House en route to a NATO summit in Europe, Mr Trump told reporters he was unhappy with both sides for the ceasefire breach but particularly frustrated with Israel, which he said had "unloaded" shortly after agreeing to the deal. "I've got to get Israel to calm down now," Mr Trump said. Iran and Israel had been fighting "so long and so hard that they don't know what the f**k they're doing." Mr Netanyahu's office acknowledged Israel bombed a radar site near Tehran in what it said was retaliation for Iranian missiles fired three-and-a-half hours after the ceasefire was due to begin. It did not explicitly say whether the strike on the radar site took place before or after they spoke. The Islamic Republic denied launching any missiles and said Israel's attacks had continued for an hour-and-a-half beyond the time the truce was meant to start. In both countries, there was a palpable sense of relief. "Who mediated or how it happened doesn't matter. The war is over. It never should have started in the first place," said Reza Sharifi, 38, heading back to Tehran from Rasht on the Caspian Sea, where he had fled with his family.
Irish Examiner
5 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Pentagon report says US strikes on Iran nuclear sites only set back programme months
A new US intelligence report found that Iran's nuclear programme has been set back only a few months after a US strike, and was not 'completely and fully obliterated' as President Donald Trump has said. The early intelligence report issued by the Defence Intelligence Agency on Monday contradicts statements from Mr Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the status of Iran's nuclear facilities. According to people familiar with the situation, the report found that while the Saturday strikes at the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites did significant damage, they were not totally destroyed. The White House strongly pushed back on the assessment, calling it 'flat-out wrong'. 'The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran's nuclear programme,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. 'Everyone knows what happens when you drop 14 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.' The CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the DIA assessment. ODNI coordinates the work of the nation's 18 intelligence agencies, including the DIA, which is the intelligence arm of the Defence Department, responsible for producing intelligence on foreign militaries and the capabilities of adversaries. The intelligence assessment was first reported by CNN on Tuesday. Read More Trump claims Israel-Iran ceasefire he brokered is 'in effect' despite initial violations
