With defence spending set to rise, Trump reassures NATO allies

• NATO to increase defence spend­ing to 5% of GDP
• Trump reas­sures allies on NATO mutu­al defence com­mit­ment
• Spain dis­putes need to meet new spend­ing tar­get
• Trump to meet Zelen­skiy

THE HAGUE, June 25 (Reuters) — NATO lead­ers were set to sign up on Wednes­day to a big increase in defence spend­ing at a short sum­mit tai­lor-made for U.S. Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump, who struck a reas­sur­ing tone on his com­mit­ment to pro­tect­ing fel­low mem­bers of the alliance.

The sum­mit is expect­ed to endorse a high­er defence spend­ing goal of 5% of GDP — a response to a demand by Trump and to Euro­peans’ fears that Rus­sia pos­es a grow­ing threat to their secu­ri­ty fol­low­ing the 2022 inva­sion of Ukraine.

NATO Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Mark Rutte acknowl­edged that it was not easy for Euro­pean coun­tries and Cana­da to find the extra mon­ey but said it was vital to do so.

“There is absolute con­vic­tion with my col­leagues at the table that, giv­en this threat from the Rus­sians, giv­en the inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty sit­u­a­tion, there is no alter­na­tive,” he told reporters.

DEBATE OVER NATO MUTUAL DEFENCE PLEDGE

Speak­ing to media before the sum­mit opened, Trump played down con­cerns over his com­mit­ment to mutu­al defence among allies as set out by Arti­cle 5 of NATO’s char­ter, say­ing: “We’re with them all the way.”

The debate has been fuelled by Trump’s own com­ments en route to the sum­mit on Tues­day. Speak­ing to reporters aboard Air Force One, he had said there were “numer­ous def­i­n­i­tions” of the clause.

Finnish Pres­i­dent Alexan­der Stubb, whose coun­trybor­ders Rus­sia and joined NATO two years ago, said the alliance was evolv­ing.

“I think we’re wit­ness­ing the birth of a new NATO, which means a more bal­anced NATO and a NATO which has more Euro­pean respon­si­bil­i­ty,” he told reporters.

All NATO mem­bers have backed a state­ment enshrin­ing the tar­get, although Spain declared it does not need to meet the goal and can meet its com­mit­ments by spend­ing much less.

Rutte dis­putes that but accept­ed a diplo­mat­ic fudge with Span­ish Prime Min­is­ter Pedro Sanchez as part of his efforts to give Trump a diplo­mat­ic vic­to­ry and make the sum­mit go smooth­ly.

Spain said on Wednes­day that it did not expect its stance to have any reper­cus­sions.