NATO summit: Trump ambiguous on Article 5 clause – DW – 06/25/2025

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6 hours ago

The US president was cryptic over whether the US would abide by the military alliance's mutual defense guarantees. Donald Trump is one of the leaders attending the NATO summit in The Hague. DW has the latest.
Member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are holding a summit in The Hague, starting Tuesday.
NATO members are expected to approve a boost in defense spending.
These are the latest developments concerning the NATO summit on Tuesday, 24.06.2025.
US President Donald Trump is in The Hague for the NATO summit, where defense leaders are expected to raise their defense spending to 5% of their national output.
This could be a big win for the US president who has for years asked European allies to contribute to their national security.
Trump has had a rocky relationship with NATO leaders, suggesting at times the US may not defend allies who do not contribute enough to defense spending.
Asked whether the US remains committed to NATO's Article 5 clause, Trump told reporters on Air Force One (on his way to Europe) that: "Depends on your definition. There are numerous definitions of Article 5. You know that, right? But I'm committed to being their friends."
Still, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte praised Trump in a personal letter the US leader shared to his Truth Social account.
Another big topic will be Russia's war in Ukraine. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy were at the Dutch royal palace for dinner together earlier this evening as well.
But Trump was seated next to like-minded Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni. Their table is shared by Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Mark Rutte.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said he has no doubt about the US commitment to the alliance's Article 5 mutual defense clause.
"I have no doubt that the US is totally committed to NATO, totally committed to Article 5," Rutte told reporters in The Hague.
He made the remarks after President Donald Trump, on his way to a summit of NATO leaders, said there were "numerous" definitions of Article 5 of the Washington Treaty,
Asked later to clarify, Trump said he was "committed to saving lives. I'm committed to life and safety. And I'm going to give you an exact definition when I get there."
The EU's top foreign policy representative Kaja Kallas spoke to DW's Alexandra von Nahmen on the sidelines of the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, on Tuesday, where the diplomat said member states, "can help Ukraine more if they invest more in defense."
Kallas said US President Donald Trump has been cajoling NATO states to spend more on defense, "for quite some time." But, she added: "Many didn't just listen, but now, we are in the security situation that we are. And most of the European countries have realized that we actually need to do this."
"Times have changed," said Kallas when asked about the fact that Ukraine was not going to be at the top of the NATO agenda this week. "But for Europe, Ukraine is our top priority. And that's why we are committing to helping Ukraine. We are committed to putting more pressure on Russia so that they would also want peace."
Asked why Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who will be at the summit, won't play a larger role, she simply said, "you know why."
Kallas also spoke of the need to put defense production into high gear. "We are also cooperating with the Ukraine defense industry because they have actually created the defense industry from scratch," said Kallas, adding that the Ukrainians have been "very creative and very innovative" and that "there's a lot we can learn from them."
Ukraine has been keen on joining NATO as well as the European Union. Its NATO aspirations look highly unlikely to feature prominently in The Hague.
Still, Kallas did not close the door on Ukraine's EU bid, saying: "We also have the European [Council] summit coming up this week. We should move with the enlargement track because that is the hope for the Ukrainian people. We need to show that Europe is their family."
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As NATO leaders increase defense spending, they must also commit to upholding human rights and international humanitarian law, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard told DW.
'What counts is the safety and the security of the people, and that cannot just be done through an increase in defense budgets. It must be done by recentering NATO, the UN, and the international community on what matters: the protection of international law,' Callamard said during an interview with DW in The Hague.
Member states are expected to agree on a target of spending 5% of gross domestic product on defense, with 3.5% allocated to core military expenditures and another 1.5% directed toward areas such as infrastructure and cybersecurity.
Callamard emphasized that the financial burden should not fall solely on ordinary citizens.
'The brunt of this 5% increase must be carried by the corporate actors who are going to benefit from the increase in defense spending,' she told DW correspondent Jack Parrock.
Amnesty International is participating in the NATO Public Forum, which runs parallel to the summit and brings together leaders, officials, security experts, academics, journalists, and NGOs.
'So far, here at the NATO summit, I have not heard one reference to the suffering of the people. Yet Ukrainians are suffering, Palestinians are suffering, Israelis are suffering, Iranians are suffering. We're counting deaths by the thousands and thousands,' Callamard said.
US President Donald Trump says he is heading to the NATO summit expecting a calmer atmosphere than recent events in the Middle East.
"Heading to NATO where, at worst, it will be a much calmer period than what I just went through with Israel and Iran. I look forward to seeing all of my very good European friends, and others. Hopefully, much will be accomplished!" Trump posted on the social media platform X.
Germany's 2025 budget includes funding for 10,000 new military positions and about 1,000 additional civilian posts, the Defense Ministry has said.
"We will invest massively in the Bundeswehr," Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said. "After decades of neglecting the Bundeswehr, dangerous security gaps have emerged that we must continue to close."
The minister called the news "today's message from Berlin" as he headed to the NATO summit in The Hague.
"NATO partners' expectations of Germany are high, and quite rightly so," Pistorius added. He confirmed that major investments in air defense were planned.
The defense budget is expected to more than double by 2029, rising to €152.8 billion, according to current budget planning.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said Berlin plans to turn its Bundeswehr into Europe's strongest army.
Pistorius has previously said that Germany could need up to 60,000 more troops.
As the NATO summit in The Hague is expected to focus on a single issue — a massive increase in defense spending across the alliance — many of Ukraine's strongest supporters fear the gathering may prove disappointing for Kyiv.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived on Tuesday and is holding bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit.
"For us, it is the most important thing to see NATO and EU countries united," he said, standing alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and European Council President Antonio Costa. The four leaders met to coordinate their positions ahead of a dinner hosted by the Dutch King.
US President Donald Trump will also be in attendance; however, he will not be seated next to the Ukrainian president, a source told DW. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said he was probably going to meet Zelenskyy in The Hague.
However, the Ukrainian leader is not invited to participate in a closed-door leaders' session planned for Wednesday.
This stands in stark contrast to the prominent role Zelenskyy played at previous NATO summits in Washington D.C., and Vilnius, and is most likely the result of Trump's antipathy toward the Ukrainian president.
US President Donald Trump has sown doubt on his commitment to NATO's core mutual defense pledge as he departed for the key summit in the Netherlands.
The two-day summit — opening with a dinner hosted by the Dutch King Willem-Alexander — aims to reassure the US leader on defense spending commitments. Trump's return to office has reignited fears he could undermine the transatlantic alliance.
Asked en route aboard Air Force One whether he remained committed to NATO's Article Five mutual defense clause, Trump said, "Depends on your definition. There's numerous definitions of Article Five," adding only that he was "committed to being their friends."
NATO members have scrambled to meet his demands by agreeing to spend 3.5% of GDP on core military needs by 2035, with an additional 1.5% dedicated to broader security areas such as cyber defense and infrastructure.
Alliance officials insist the buildup is essential to deter Russia, warning that Moscow could recover from its war losses in Ukraine and pose a renewed threat within five years.
Europe has finally awakened in response to Russia's war against Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says, describing a generational shift in the continent's security posture.
"All of Europe is facing a changing international landscape as we've just heard, rightly so," she told reporters ahead of a two-day summit of the alliance in The Hague. "The security architecture that we relied on for decades can no longer be taken for granted. It is a once in a generation tectonic shift."
Von der Leyen said recent actions by European states would have seemed "unthinkable just a year ago."
"The Europe of defense has finally awakened," she added. "Tomorrow, the summit will set indeed historic new spending targets for NATO allies."
The NATO military alliance's chief Mark Rutte has said it is "unthinkable" that Russia should manage to "outproduce" the Western defence alliance.
"We need to do more," Rutte stressed at a defence industry forum ahead of a crunch leaders' summit in The Hague.
"It is simply unthinkable that Russia, with an economy 25 times smaller than NATO's, should be able to outproduce and outgun us," the NATO chief stressed. "We must spend more to prevent war. We must win this new war of production."
Rutte also said European allies should not be concerned over the United States' commitment to NATO, despite criticism of the alliance from US President Donald Trump.
Speaking ahead of a two-day gathering in The Hague, Netherlands, Rutte said: "There is total commitment by the US president and the US senior leadership to NATO," Rutte told a public forum before the formal opening of the summit.
The summit and its final statement will be short and focused on heeding Trump's call to spend 5% of GDP on defense — a big jump from the current 2% goal.
Rutte described the spending issue as a "this huge pebble in the shoe" and a "huge irritant."
"We are not spending enough as Europeans and Canadians, and they want us to equalize with what the US is spending," he said.
Meanwhile, Rutte said he "cannot predict" when the three-year war in Ukraine will end.
Russia has cited Ukraine's desire to join NATO as one of the reasons why it launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor in 2022.
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While the escalation in the Middle East will be high on NATO summit's docket, the spotlight is on a massive increase in defense spending. This comes in response to pressure form US President Donald Trump. Read our full explainer here.
NATO is the world's largest military alliance, and is more than three-quarters of a century old. It now has 32 member countries. But what exactly is NATO and what are its tasks?
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NATO allies gathered in The Hague on Tuesday to begin a two-day summit which would see countries in the transnational military alliance discuss a boost their defense spending.
Leaders, defense and foreign ministers of the 32 member states, along with representatives of NATO's Indo-Pacific partners — Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand — are expected at the summit.
The Netherlands summit comes amid the shadow of the escalation in the Middle East and the ongoing war in Ukraine. Both crises are likely to be addressed during the session.
NATO countries are expected to vote in favor of increasing defense spending to 5% at the summit.
Getting NATO members to shell out more money in defense spending has been a key demand of US President Donald Trump, who is also expected to attend.
Stay with our updates as we bring you the latest news and analyses from the NATO summit.