A who’s who of world leaders has been converging on the Netherlands for the annual North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, where members are expected to sign off on major boosts to defence spending in response to pressure from the United States.
The two-day NATO meeting kicks off in The Hague on Tuesday against a backdrop of increasing global instability, with ongoing conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and the Middle East. High on the agenda is an agreement to significantly increase defence expenditure across the 32 member states. This follows pointed criticism from the administration of US President Donald Trump, who says the US carries too much of the military burden.
Trump has demanded that NATO allies increase their defence spending to 5 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP), up from the current target of 2 percent. He has questioned whether the alliance should defend countries that fail to meet the spending targets, and has even threatened to leave the bloc.
Speaking to reporters in The Hague ahead of the summit on Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that NATO members were set to approve “historic new spending targets” at the summit.
“The security architecture that we relied on for decades can no longer be taken for granted,” she said, describing it as a “once-in-a-generation tectonic shift”.
“In recent months, Europe has taken action, action that seemed unthinkable just a year ago,” she said. “The Europe of defence has finally awakened.”
