US president likely to be in self-congratulatory mood, with most allies persuaded to sign up to defence spending target
Donald Trump was expected to fly into the Nato summit in The Hague on Tuesday to perform a victory lap. After decades of complaining about European defence spending, with the help of Mark Rutte, Nato’s new secretary general, allies are ready to sign up to a target to raise, in most cases, core defence spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035.
On top of that, it is just a few days since the first major military intervention of Trump’s second term – the bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan over the weekend – and hours since his declaration of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.
Barring a dramatic breakdown in that ceasefire, Trump is likely to arrive in a self-congratulatory mood, which most Nato leaders are unlikely to want to puncture at a cut-down summit, designed for leaders with short attention spans. It will begin with a dinner hosted by the Dutch king, Willem-Alexander, on Tuesday evening, to be followed by a single working meeting on Wednesday morning with press conferences thereafter.
Concerns from earlier this year about whether Trump would reject Nato, withdraw US troops from Europe, abandon Ukraine and pursue a close relationship with Moscow have eased, though none have gone away. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is invited to the dinner, but not to a working meeting with Nato leaders, reflecting the softening US support for Kyiv, where fresh military aid has been halted under Trump.
