Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free
Your guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the world
Nato has cut back an upcoming leaders’ summit to just one working session in a bid to avoid US President Donald Trump walking out early as he did recently at a G7 meeting.
Leaders of the transatlantic military alliance will meet in The Hague on Wednesday amid uncertainty over Washington’s continued support for Europe’s defence, after Trump threatened to stop protecting allies that don’t commit to spend 5 per cent of their GDP on defence.
Nato has scaled down its plans for the event — which was originally supposed to take place over three days — to just one two-and-a-half hour working session among the 32 leaders dedicated to that spending pledge.
The decision was taken to ensure Trump did not get bored and leave early, three officials briefed on the preparations told the Financial Times.
Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte has received broad support for his proposal to increase core military spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2030, accompanied by 1.5 per cent in investment in security-adjacent areas such as roads, bridges and cyber security. But Spain and a few other members were still holding out on this pledge, officials said.
An informal leaders’ dinner hosted by the King and Queen of the Netherlands will also take place on Tuesday evening.
“The entire point is to make it as small, and as focused as possible,” said one of the officials. “With as little scope for disruption.”
“It has gone from two days to one two-hour session . . . so it should be feasible, and my hope is that it will work,” Claudia Major, senior vice-president at the German Marshall Fund, told an FT Live event in Berlin on Thursday. “But I gave up trying to predict Trump.”
Trump walked out of a G7 summit in Canada on Monday evening, skipping the event’s second day, which included talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
He argued that he was needed back in Washington to deal with the conflict between Israel and Iran. But people familiar with the discussions said that his decision to leave was partly due to irritation at French President Emmanuel Macron who had stopped in Greenland and opposed Trump’s plans to take control of the island, as well as the US president’s lack of interest in meeting the Ukrainian leader.
Zelenskyy has been invited to The Hague and is set to take part in the Tuesday evening dinner.
On the 5 per cent spending pledge, Spain remained the last holdout, two people familiar with the discussions told the FT.
A few other countries are also backing Madrid in opposing the pledge, despite intense pressure from other capitals to placate Trump and ensure a smooth summit. A Spanish government official said other countries privately shared Spain’s concerns and doubts about the credibility of the 5 per cent target.
There are worries in Madrid that such a sharp increase in defence outlays will jeopardise Spain’s ability to maintain its social welfare spending.
Additional reporting by Barney Jopson in Madrid
Source link
