NATO's Rutte says he assumes alliance will agree on 5% spending target
BRUSSELS - NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Monday that he assumes alliance members will agree to a broad defence spending target of 5% of gross domestic product during a summit in The Hague next month.
"I assume that in The Hague we will agree on a high defence spend target of in total 5%," Rutte said at a meeting of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Dayton.
"Let's say that this 5%, but I will not say what is the individual breakup, but it will be considerably north of 3% when it comes to the hard spend, and it will be also a target on defence-related spending," he added.
Reuters reported earlier this month that Rutte had proposed NATO members raise defence spending to 3.5% of their GDP, and a further 1.5% on broader security-related items to meet U.S. President Donald Trump's demand for a 5% target.
NATO aims to agree on the new targets at a summit of alliance leaders in The Hague on June 24-25.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said earlier this month that "Rutte has sent a letter to all NATO members to say that he expects that the commitment at the NATO summit will be 3.5% on hard military spending, to be reached in 2032, and 1.5% on related spending such as on infrastructure, cyber security, and similar things also to be reached by 2032". REUTERS
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Times
a minute ago
- Business Times
Oil slips as Russia supply concerns ease after Trump-Putin meet
[SINGAPORE] Oil prices slipped in early Asian trade on Monday as the United States did not exert more pressure on Russia to end the Ukraine war by implementing further measures to disrupt Moscow's oil exports after presidents from both countries met on Friday. Brent crude futures dropped 32 cents, or 0.49 per cent, to US$65.53 a barrel by 2213 GMT while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at US$62.57 a barrel, down 23 cents. US President Donald Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday and emerged more aligned with Moscow on seeking a peace deal instead of a ceasefire first. Trump will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European leaders on Monday to strike a quick peace deal to end Europe's deadliest war in 80 years. 'What was primarily in play were the secondary tariffs targeting the key importers of Russian energy, and President Trump has indeed indicated that he will pause pursuing incremental action on this front, at least for China,' RBC Capital analyst Helima Croft said in a note. 'The status quo remains largely intact for now,' she said, adding that Moscow will not walk back on territorial demands while Ukraine and some European leaders will balk at the land-for-peace deal. REUTERS
Straits Times
31 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Russia strikes Kharkiv with ballistic missile, injures 11, Ukraine says
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox KHARKIV - Russia hit a residential area in Kharkiv with a ballistic missile, injuring at least 11 people, Ukrainian authorities said late on Sunday, as the U.S. president presses Kyiv to accept a quick deal to end the war that Moscow had started. Among the injured in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, was a 13-year-old girl, Oleh Synehubov, governor of the broader Kharkiv region said on the Telegram messaging app. Kharkiv, which lies in northeastern Ukraine near the border with Russia, has been the target of regular Russian drone and missile attacks since the start of the war that Moscow launched with a full-scale invasion in February 2022. "The blast wave shattered windows in nearby apartment buildings," Ukraine's State Emergency Service said on Telegram. It added that some residents had to be evacuated. Reuters' witnesses saw medics attending to residents on a street and rescuers inspecting damage in residential buildings. A 57-year-old woman was injured in Russia's guided aerial bomb strike on the northeastern region of Sumy that also damaged at least a dozen residential houses and an educational institution building, regional authorities said. "The enemy continues to deliberately target civilian infrastructure in the Sumy region — treacherously, at night," Oleh Hryhorov, head of the regional administration in Sumy, said on Telegram. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore NDR 2025 a rallying cry amid significant challenges facing Singapore, say analysts Opinion A 'we first' Singapore is the hardest policy for PM Lawrence Wong to deliver Singapore NDR 2025: The case for growing old at home in super-ageing Singapore Business Will Trump's tariffs end the bull run? Singapore Singapore-developed device for diabetics measures long-term average blood sugar levels within 6 mins Singapore N(T) students more likely to finish school, do as well in job market as N(A) peers: Study Business Singapore companies' debt surge in 2024: Sustainable or risky gamble? Singapore Arrested for drug abuse, former DJ now works for anti-drug group as part of DRC scheme Reuters could not independently verify what weapons Russia used. There was no immediate comment from Moscow. Both sides deny targeting civilians in their strikes, but thousands of people have died, the vast majority of them Ukrainian. President Donald Trump, who hosted President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday for bilateral talks aimed at ending the war, has urged Kyiv to make a deal with Moscow, stating, "Russia is a very big power, and they're not." REUTERS
Business Times
31 minutes ago
- Business Times
European leaders to join Zelensky in Trump meeting
EUROPEAN leaders said on Sunday they would join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in talks with US President Donald Trump on Monday, as they try to find a way to end Russia's offensive. Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday but the talks failed to yield any breakthrough on a ceasefire - though White House envoy Steve Witkoff said both leaders had agreed to provide 'robust security guarantees' to Ukraine. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen hailed the news but Zelensky, speaking alongside her at a news conference in Brussels, rejected the idea of Russia offering his country security guarantees. 'What President Trump said about security guarantees is much more important to me than Putin's thoughts, because Putin will not give any security guarantees,' he said. Zelensky later said on social media that the US offer regarding security guarantees was 'historic'. Moscow denounces Macron BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up French President Emmanuel Macron, who will take part in the Washington meeting along with von der Leyen and others, said European leaders would ask Washington 'to what extent' they were ready to contribute to the security guarantees offered to Ukraine in any peace agreement. Of Moscow's position, he said: 'There is only one state proposing a peace that would be a capitulation: Russia.' Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called that an 'abject lie' in a statement on Telegram later on Sunday. Moscow had been proposing a 'peaceful resolution' of the conflict for seven years under the terms of the Minsk Accords, she said. Macron, she added, was trying to convince Ukraine that it could win on the battlefield even when he knew that that was 'impossible'. Hopes for 'productive meeting' Trump, who pivoted after the Alaska meeting to say he was now seeking a peace deal rather than a ceasefire, on Sunday posted 'BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA. STAY TUNED!' on his Truth Social platform, without elaborating. Trump's sudden focus on a peace deal aligns with the stance long taken by Putin, one which Ukraine and its European allies have criticised as Putin's way to buy time while trying to make battlefield gains. Zelensky also said he saw 'no sign' the Kremlin leader was prepared to meet him and Trump for a three-way summit, as had been floated by the US president. The leaders heading to Washington on Monday to appear alongside Zelensky call themselves the 'coalition of the willing'. As well as von der Leyen and Macron, they include British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte. Also heading to Washington will be Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who get on well with Trump. On Sunday they all held a video meeting to prepare their joint position. Speaking to US broadcaster CNN, Witkoff said: 'I'm hopeful that we have a productive meeting on Monday, we get to real consensus, we're able to come back to the Russians and push this peace deal forward and get it done.' US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking to NBC on Sunday, warned of 'consequences' - including the potential imposition of new sanctions on Russia - if no peace deal was reached on Ukraine. Territorial 'concessions' European leaders have expressed unease from the outset over Trump's outreach to Putin, who has demanded Ukraine abandon its ambitions to join the EU or Nato. They were excluded from Trump's summit with Putin. Witkoff, in his CNN interview, said the process of offering 'game-changing' security guarantees would involve territorial 'concessions'. According to an official briefed on a call Trump held with Zelensky and European leaders as he flew back from Alaska, the US leader supported a Putin proposal that Russia take full control of two eastern Ukrainian regions in exchange for freezing the frontline in two others. Putin 'de facto demands that Ukraine leave Donbas', an area consisting of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in eastern Ukraine, which Russia currently only partly controls, the source said. In exchange, Russian forces would halt their offensive in the Black Sea port region of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, where the main cities are still under Ukrainian control. Several months into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia in September 2022 claimed to have annexed all four Ukrainian regions even though its troops still do not fully control any of them. 'The Ukrainian president refused to leave Donbas,' the source said. Meanwhile, the conflict in Ukraine rages on, with both Kyiv and Moscow launching attack drones at each other on Sunday. AFP
