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New York Times

The Fears Dominating the NATO Summit

If the meeting of NATO heads of state in The Hague needed a catchy movie title, it could be 'The Summit of Fear.' At a gathering shadowed by the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, the fears dominating this week's NATO meeting fall in two camps: the fear of offending, or at least alienating, Donald Trump, the president of the alliance's most powerful partner, and the fears of NATO countries near Russia that President Vladimir Putin's aggression could spread to them. Trump, who arrived on Tuesday, has given the European members of NATO plenty of reason to worry. He has humiliated President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in the White House, praised Russia, called for the incorporation into the United States of NATO-member territory (see Denmark's Greenland and Canada) and imposed tariffs on allies. Above all, he demanded that other members pay more for the alliance's collective defense, threatening that America might not protect countries that didn't. The resulting sense of trepidation — call it the Trump tiptoe effect — has shaped the summit's primary goal: for NATO's 32 members to raise their defense spending to 5 percent of their gross domestic product, from the current goal of 2 percent, which NATO officials have said they've agreed to do. The clever trick to make that level of spending actually possible was to split up the 5 percent figure into 3.5 percent of G.D.P. for defense and 1.5 percent for military-related infrastructure improvements — like building bridges strong enough to carry tanks and upgrading hospital emergency rooms. It's an ill-defined and elastic category, and a deadline for nations to reach the 5 percent benchmark has not yet been established, though 2035 has been suggested, and a progress report is expected in 2029. NATO's secretary general, Mark Rutte, said at a news conference on Monday that within 'three, five, seven years' Russia would 'be able to successfully attack us.' So starting that extra spending right away is necessary, he said. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.