Trump whirlwind tests NATO summit unity
THE HAGUE: Will he play nice? That was the question for NATO leaders nervously waiting to see if a carefully choreographed show to please US President Donald Trump would pay dividends as the alliance summit began on Wednesday.
Every precaution is in place to avoid a Trump blow-up at the Hague gathering, from giving him credit for a historic spending deal to keeping the meeting short and sweet.
But that did not stop the volatile US leader launching a pre-summit grenade as he crossed the Atlantic on Air Force One, casting doubt on the very foundation of the 32-member alliance.
He refused to state his commitment to NATO's Article Five clause, the basic agreement that says an attack on one member is an attack on all.
'Depends on your definition. There's numerous definitions of Article Five,' Trump told journalists in comments sure to rattle the European allies he dined with upon arrival on Tuesday night.
'I'm committed to being their friend,' he said.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte played down the comments as the summit opened on Wednesday, saying he believed Trump and the United States were still 'totally committed' to Article Five.
In an earlier message, probably not designed for public consumption, Rutte heaped flattery on Trump, praising him for bringing everyone on board for the spending hike.
'Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win,' Rutte wrote in a gushing, caps-filled missive to Trump, who promptly posted it on social media.
'You are flying into another big success in The Hague,' wrote Rutte.
NATO allies are set on Wednesday to rubber stamp a pledge to allocate 3.5 percent of GDP to core defence spending, plus another 1.5 percent to broader security-related areas such as cybersecurity and infrastructure.
Rutte said that the spending boost by Europeans nations and Canada would make sure 'that we not only are able to defend ourselves against the Russians and others, but also to equalise.'
'And this is fair, that we spend the same as the US is spending,' Rutte said.
Rutte said that Trump was in an 'excellent mood' after dining in royal splendour with the Dutch king and queen on Tuesday night and spending the night in their palace.
'This is incredible'
Trump has long groused that European countries pay too little for their own security, upended by Russia's war in Ukraine.
The spending hike is designed to keep him engaged with the alliance, after his return to power sparked fears that he could blow up the seven-decade-old organisation.
Spain was the main hold-out on the five-percent target, complaining that spending that amount on defence was 'unreasonable' -- and drawing Trump's ire in the process.
Trump took fresh aim at Madrid en route to The Hague, calling its stance 'very unfair' and posting a graphic entitled 'Spain threatens to derail NATO summit' showing the relative outlay of alliance members.
One of the lowest-spending NATO countries on defence in relative terms, Spain is only set to hit the current NATO target of two percent this year after a 10-billion-euro injection.
Rutte stressed that the spending hike -- billed as 'historic' -- is needed to keep Russia in check, but even here Trump threatens to spoil NATO unity.
The US leader has turned Western policy on Ukraine on its head, reaching out to Russian President Vladimir Putin and maintaining a volatile relationship with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump and Zelensky are slated to have a tete-a-tete in The Hague -- with officials hoping to avoid a bust-up like their infamous Oval Office shouting match.
Unlike previous summits, Zelensky has not been invited to the main working session of the leaders -- cut to two and a half hours, reportedly due to Trump's dislike of lengthy talks.
Rutte said that allies would send the message that support for Kyiv was 'unwavering and will persist'.
But despite his insistence that Ukraine's bid for membership remains 'irreversible', NATO will avoid any mention of Kyiv's push to join after Trump ruled it out.
One European diplomat put it succinctly. 'We have a completely unpredictable US president.'
'We are hoping there won't be an ill-timed comment that is all anyone remembers. Everything has been done to reduce this risk,' the official said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New Straits Times
2 hours ago
- New Straits Times
With Iran, risk-taker Trump places his biggest bet yet
Like the casino owner he once was, President Donald Trump has shown an appetite for risk during the first months of his administration. The United States airstrike on Iran, however, may represent Trump's largest gamble yet. For now, Trump appears to have won his bet that he could limit US involvement and force the parties to a ceasefire. "He wagered," said Firas Maksad, managing director for the Middle East and North Africa practice at Eurasia Group. "Things went his way." It remains to be seen whether the ceasefire will hold. Early on Tuesday, Trump expressed frustration that Israel had launched an attack on Teheran hours after the president had declared a break in the hostilities. If the agreement doesn't stick - or if Iran ultimately retaliates militarily or economically, Trump risks fragmenting the America First coalition that helped power him back into office by rendering what his movement stands for increasingly nebulous and ill-defined. "If six months from now, Iran continues to be a problem, it will grind down the MAGA coalition," said Chris Stirewalt, a political analyst with the conservative American Enterprise Institute. Trump, in a sense, had already diluted the MAGA brand, Stirewalt said, by doing what he swore on the campaign trail he wouldn't: involve the US in another conflict in the Middle East. And Trump's messaging may already show the challenges that could be faced with winning approval from his base. Last Thursday, Trump said he would take as long as two weeks to determine whether the US would join the war on Israel's side, arguing the time was needed to lower the temperature. Instead, two days later, he approved the bomber run, not only likely catching the Iranians off guard but many Americans as well. His choice to hit Iran could also pose problems for whichever Republican tries to claim his mantle in the next presidential election. "In 2028, the question of foreign intervention will be a dividing line. It will be a litmus test as people struggle to define what MAGA is," Stirewalt said. The White House largely left it to Vice-President JD Vance, one of the most isolationist members of the administration, to defend the Iranian strike on a Sunday news programme. Iran has not been the only example of where Trump has bet big and the payoff remains elusive. His on-again-off-again use of tariffs has sparked uncertainty in markets and stoked inflation fears. His efforts to slash the government bureaucracy have lost momentum with the departure of Elon Musk from his circle of advisers. His hardline immigration push sparked protests across the country. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday, and conducted before the ceasefire was announced, showed that only 36 per cent of those surveyed supported the strikes against Iran's nuclear programme. Overall, Trump's approval rating fell to 41 per cent, a new low for his second term. His foreign policy received even lower marks. Dave Hopkins, an expert on US politics at Boston College, said that Trump neglected to make a case in advance to the American people that the strike was in the country's interests. "We have not seen discussion of Iran as a major enemy of the US or a threat to the US," said Hopkins. Trump's boast that he had forced a ceasefire was part of a pattern, he added. As a candidate, Trump promised he could end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, but has since discovered he cannot bend Moscow and Tel Aviv to his will. In fact, in striking Iran, Trump followed Israel's lead, not vice versa. The strike fits with how Trump has approached his second term, with a willingness to govern in broad strokes and act boldly without widespread public backing. He does not need to worry about facing voters again and works with a largely compliant Republican-controlled Congress. Political payback might not happen immediately, said Allison Stanger, a political scientist at Middlebury College, but could come in the form of continued civic unrest in America or Democratic gains in next year's midterm elections. "Trump's political risk isn't immediate escalation," Stanger said. "It's the slow burn of resentment he has built across multiple fronts, both foreign and domestic."
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Analysis-Europe placates Trump with NATO pledges it can ill afford
LONDON (Reuters) -In their rush to retain Donald Trump's support for NATO, the alliance's European members have promised to more than double the amount of wealth they set aside for military spending. The snag is that most can ill-afford to spend 5% of output on defence - so while there will be some unpalatable sacrifices in national budgets, there will also be some creative accounting to divert existing spending to the effort. "They will not get there," Guntram Wolff, senior fellow of the Bruegel think-tank, said of the 5% goal. "If you are a highly indebted country you can't issue more debt, it means very difficult budgetary choices," he said of the hefty tax hikes or spending cuts that it would require. As a piece of political theatre, the Hague summit at least won over its intended audience: Trump himself. Amid concerns about his commitment to NATO's mutual defence clause, he said the United States stood with its European allies "all the way". While few dispute that Europe needs to do more to ensure its own security as tensions with Russia rise, the fixation on the 5% target cut short a separate debate about how it could be using its existing military budgets more efficiently, for example with national governments agreeing on joint procurement. Now it has saddled itself with pledges which - with the notable exception of Germany, whose finances are solid after years of fiscal frugality - most members will find hard to keep. To hit the 5% threshold, European Union countries, whose debt pile already tops 80% of output, would between them have to nearly triple the 325 billion euros ($377 billion) they spent on defence last year to more than 900 billion. Non-EU Britain - whose debt is 100% of output and which already pays more in debt servicing than for every spending item apart from health - would need an extra 30 billion pounds ($41 billion). "The potential losers are not just future generations saddled with huge debts, but today's societies," said Nick Witney at the European Council on Foreign Relations. "Disgruntled populations, whose sense of economic wellbeing has never recovered from the global economic crash of 2008, will likely become even easier prey forpopulist or nationalist politiciansgathering strength across Europe." GUNS OR BUTTER? To be sure, the closer a country sits next to Russia, the less domestic angst there is about finding the extra cash - Poland, the Baltics and Finland are all cases in point. Years of rivalry with neighbouring Turkey have meanwhile attuned Greek public opinion to accept higher defence spending. But Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez - whose country is alone in not expressly signing up to the new target - voiced the concerns of others when he said the goal was "incompatible with our welfare state". Slovakia, one of the central European countries whose budgets face the greatest strains from the defence build-up, has also baulked at the target, arguing that raising living standards and cutting its borrowing were equally important. Bruegel's Wolff said it remained to be seen whether countries increase their defence quotas by shaving the odd billion here and there off other areas, or whether big-ticket areas such as pensions take a sizeable hit. "But keep it in proportion - there will still be a welfare state but perhaps less generous," he said of social protections across Europe that can account for anything up to 30% of the economy. As leaders depart the Hague summit venue, the national conversations on defence will sound strikingly different to those that were had in the run-up to the gathering. The 5% breaks down into 3.5% to be spent on "core" defence - troops and weapons - and 1.5% on defence-related measures such as adapting roads and bridges to handle military vehicles. The room to wedge existing spending items into the second category will likely prove generous. In France, for example, there is discussion about whether that could include the gendarmes policing country lanes, who are formally part of the defence ministry but whose existing running costs currently lie outside the defence cost tally. The long deadlines aired for hitting the target - in some cases up to a decade - are also an opportunity for those pledges to be fudged as the political spotlight shines elsewhere. "Spending goals will simply be missed," said Witney. "The transformation required will begin to take shape, but less rapidly and less coherently than if more realistic targets had been set." ($1 = 0.7344 pounds) ($1 = 0.8613 euros) (Writing by Mark John; additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Leigh Thomas in Paris; Maria Martinez in Berlin; William Schomberg in London; Eleftherios Papadimos in Athens; Anne Kauranen in Helsinki; Simon Johnson in Stockholm; Gergely Szakacs in Budapest; Jan Lopatka in Prague; Editing by Alex Richardson)
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Trump says he will speak to Putin soon about ending Ukraine war
THE HAGUE (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday after talks with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that he is considering sending more Patriot missile batteries to Ukraine to help Kyiv fend off Russian attacks. Trump said the anti-missile missiles are "very hard to get" but that "we are going to see if we can make some of them available." Trump, at a press conference after attending the annual NATO summit, said Zelenskiy would like to end the war. Trump said he will speak to Putin about it soon. "Look, Vladimir Putin really has to end that war," Trump said. (Reporting by Jeff Mason and Steve Holland)
