US totally committed to NATO, Rutte says before Hague summit
THE HAGUE - European allies should not worry about the United States' commitment to NATO, Mark Rutte, the chief of the military alliance, said on Tuesday, speaking before a summit that is likely to sign off a big new spending goal.
The two-day gathering is intended to signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin that NATO is united, despite U.S. President Donald Trump's previous criticism of the alliance, and determined to expand and upgrade its defences to deter any attack from Moscow.
"There is total commitment by the U.S. president and the U.S. senior leadership to NATO," Rutte told a public forum before the formal opening of the summit, adding, however, that such backing came with an expectation that European countries and Canada spend more on defence.
The summit and its final statement will be short and focused on heeding Trump's call to spend 5% of GDP on defence - a big jump from the current 2% goal. It is to be achieved both by spending more on military items and by including broader security-related spending in the new target.
Appearing relaxed before the expected arrival of Trump later on Tuesday, Rutte described the spending issue as "this huge pebble in the shoe, this huge irritant, which is that we are not spending enough as Europeans and Canadians, and they want us to equalise with what the U.S. is spending".
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he planned to meet Trump in The Hague - although Zelenskiy will not take part in the summit itself, as NATO officials have sought to avoid any clash between Trump and other leaders over the war in Ukraine.
Zelenskiy told a Sky News interview broadcast on Tuesday that the two leaders' teams were working on organisational details and the timing of the meeting.
Asked about the possibility of an end to the three-year war in Ukraine, Rutte said: "I cannot predict when it will happen." He also praised Trump for engaging with Putin.
Russia has cited its neighbour's desire to join the U.S.-led transatlantic alliance as one of the reasons why it invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that NATO - founded in 1949 to resist the threat from the communist Soviet Union - had been created for confrontation and was on a path of "rampant militarisation".
The war between Israel and Iran and the uncertain status of a ceasefire announced overnight by Trump make the summit much less predictable than Rutte - a former prime minister of the Netherlands hosting the gathering in his home city - and other NATO member countries would like. REUTERS
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