Trump appeals to the top priorities of the Allies at the NATO summit

It seems that one of the main goals of the NATO summit (NATO) for the year 2025, which concluded its work in The Hague, last Wednesday, was to appease US President Donald Trump. The red carpet, literally and metaphorically. It was hosted by the Dutch king and queen in the Royal Palace, thus becoming the first American president to go there.

And the Secretary -General of “NATO”, Mark Ratte, made his best to the sake of praise for Trump, where he said at a press conference after the summit: “He (Trump) is a good friend, and I trust him.” He described him as a “peace man” and also a “powerful man.” Routah rejected the questions of the journalists about whether his wooing behavior towards Trump was “insulting”, and made him appear “weak.”

Many of his statements at the summit reflected Trump’s speech to himself or his previous criticism of the alliance.

The Secretary -General of the NATO Alliance in Trump praised his “decisive” measures against Iran, and he repeatedly affirmed that the American president deserves praise to urge him with the “NATO” to adhere to a new goal for defensive spending, with 5% of the gross domestic product.

“I don’t know if I had done that, but I think I did,” Trump said at a press conference held before the end of the summit. It seems that there is a change in the situation, as Trump has always criticized the “NATO” allies, because of their shortcomings in their defensive spending for years, and often misunderstood the method of financing the coalition in this process. Trump also raised the concerns of the “NATO” allies that he may take steps to withdraw the United States from the alliance.

praise

It is clear that his other “NATO” allies sought striving to the opposite of this trend, and it seems that avoiding Trump’s antagonism was one of the main goals of the summit, as it became clear from the short schedule and the decline in the focus on Russia’s continuous war in Ukraine, in addition to the efforts made to praise the president to achieve the 5%goal.

Trump’s initial reaction to the Allied initiatives was more mysterious, which raised their concerns. Even before his arrival in The Hague, Trump participated in an opinion poll on the “Truth Social” website, showed that 57% of the Republicans supporting “making America great again”, who constitute its basic electoral base, will support it if the United States withdrew from “NATO”.

The president’s ambiguity extended to the joint defense clause of Article Five of the “NATO” charter. When the journalists asked him on the presidential plane if he was committed to the fifth article while heading to The Hague, Trump said that the matter “depends on our definition of this principle.”

But after waking up at the Dutch King’s Palace, last Wednesday – he was apparently great – Trump changed his position. “We are with them to the end,” he said when asked about his commitment to the fifth article. His Rawah had previously stated that Washington was “completely committed” to the joint defense item of “NATO”.

No option to withdraw

The “NATO” summit did not witness a discussion about Trump’s statement, last week, in which he indicated the need to exempt the United States from the 5%spending condition, and even with his criticism of the position of Spain and Slovakia rejecting the rejectionists, he said that “(NATO) does not have the option to withdraw.” The head of the “NATO” has defended Trump, noting that part of the goal is 3.5% of the basic defense spending, stressing that the United States “has almost this.”

The United States, the world’s highest defense budget, is currently spending about 3.4% of its gross domestic product.

The other side of the 5% goal is to spend 1.5% on the defense infrastructure, which Route said: “We can assume with confidence that Washington is achieving it,” pointing to the United States’s investments in areas such as cybersecurity and security.

In the announcement of the Hague Summit, Al -NATO confirmed that it is still committed to investing 5% of the GDP annually in the basic defense requirements, in addition to the defense and security spending by 2035.

At his press conference on Wednesday, Trump described the 5% agreement as “a tremendous victory for the United States, because we were much more than our fair share”, as he described it as “a great victory for Europe, but for Western civilization.”

European unity

The European “NATO” members took advantage of the summit and commitment with the goal of 5%, to indicate that the continent is finally responsible for its defense, and will no longer depend on the United States as a president of its security. This issue has gained momentum within the “NATO” for years, especially in the aftermath of Russia’s war on Ukraine in 2022. But it is clear that this feeling has increased strength with Trump’s return to the White House, especially after the Munich Security Conference last February. “This summit has been prepared for Donald Trump, not to please him, but perhaps to convince him of the seriousness of Europe,” Czech Foreign Minister Yan Libverkki said in an interview with “Citrip”.

It seems that the summit succeeded in this, as Trump said: “Without the United States, they would not really have been able to create a NATO, which will succeed in the future because they are now paying money more.” About “Foreign Policy”

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Spain’s position

The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, said last week, before the NATO summit (NATO), that Madrid will not exceed 2.1%of the GDP of defensive spending.

Spain is currently one of eight countries that have not achieved the original goal of 2%. But “NATO” seemed last Wednesday that he had given Spain some flexibility, as he wrote in a brief statement of five points, that “the allies – not all of them) – have adhered to this goal.”

Sanchez said, commenting on the statement.

While many “NATO” countries seemed ready to appease Spain, the United States was not among them, as President Donald Trump said: “I think Spain is very bad, because of what it did,” he said, adding: “The Madrid economy may collapse completely if a bad thing happens.” He threatened to punish Spain by forcing it to “pay the amount of amount” in a future trade agreement between Washington and the European Union. It is not clear how it will do so, as the White House is negotiating with the entire European Union, and not with its individual.

For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron warned, saying: “We cannot say that we will spend more, then we are waging a commercial war in the heart of (NATO),” describing Trump’s statements as “strange”. Paris indicated that the high American customs duties may harm the Atlantic trade, and constitute an obstacle to the ability of countries to achieve the goal of spending of 5%.

“NATO” adopts the target of spending 5% of the GDP of defensive spending for Trump’s reassurance.