ROME: NATO chief Mark Rutte said Thursday he was “pretty confident” of getting a deal on boosting defense spending at a summit later this month, as he met European allies in Rome. He joined foreign ministers and diplomats from Italy, France, Germany, Britain, Poland, Spain, Ukraine and the EU to discuss defense spending and their support for Kyiv, as Russia escalates its bombardments. The meeting of the so-called “Weimar+” group comes ahead of a G7 summit in Canada on June 15-17, where allies will push US President Donald Trump to be more aggressive in punishing the Kremlin.

NATO allies are expected to be asked to pump up their defense spending when the organization's Secretary General Mark Rutte speaks in London Monday.

LONDON: NATO members need to increase their air and missile defenses by 400 percent to counter the threat from Russia, the head of the military alliance said Monday, warning that…