Germany vows fair share of Europe’s defence as Nato leaders arrive at Hague summit

The German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned that the president of Russia understands only the language of the force and that the “historic” summit of Tuesday NATO will aim in The Hague will aim to ensure peace in Europe for future generations.

Merz said at the hours of Parliament in Germany before the start of the summit that Vladimir Putin has remained determined that Ukraine should be part of Russia, and he said that Berlin would pay his “good part” to defend Europe.

US President Donald Trump has been on the way to Hague for his first NATO summit since 2019, where the 32 managers should commit to spending 3.5% of national defense production and an additional 1.5% for related infrastructure.

Before a summit overshadowed by Israeli-Iranian conflicts, NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, told his European colleagues to stop worrying about the American commitment to the Western alliance and to focus on investment in the defense and support of Ukraine.

He insisted that the American president and senior management had a “total commitment” towards NATO, which expected the expectation of US military spending.

Rutte said that Europe and Canada have already engaged at more than $ 35 billion (26 billion pounds Sterling) in military support for Ukraine this year.

Ten people were killed on Tuesday in Russian attacks on Ukraine, and the German chancellor said that each attempt to bring Russia to the negotiating table has so far failed.

The missile attacks against the eastern city of Dnipro and the neighboring city of Samar killed 11 people and injured 150 others, according to regional chief Serhiy Lysak. A number of children were injured in the attack on Dnipro, which damaged a kindergarten and a traveler train.

A hit of anterior missiles on Sumy in the northeast killed three people, including a child.

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, which has arrived in The Hague, is expected to meet Donald Trump on the sidelines of the NATO summit. It would be their first meeting since they met at the funeral of Pope Francis in the Vatican in April.

NATO member states should approve a new major investment plan that will increase the investment for defense to 5% of GDP.

Many allies are much lower than the commitment to spend 3.5% of the GDP in defense by 2035, but the German government supported a budget agreement on Tuesday to achieve this target by 2029.

Some 62.4 billion euros (53 billion pounds sterling) will be spent in defense in 2025, going to 152.8 billion euros in 2029, partly funded by debt and special funds.

“We do not do this in favor of the United States and its president, we do it by our own opinion and our conviction, because Russia actively and aggressively puts the security and freedom of the whole of the Euro-Atlantic.”

During the summit, Merz should meet the British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and the French president Emmanuel Macron.

Mark Rutte has spent a large part of the nine months since he became NATO secretary general to work so that the allies engage in the target of 5%. The figure is more than current guidelines of 2% of NATO members and seemed unthinkable – and unrealistic – for the most part when President Trump put it in January for the first time.

The two -day NATO summit was reduced, so that after Tuesday dinner organized by the Dutch King, there will be a work session of less than three hours on Wednesday and a declaration of five paragraphs, apparently to welcome President Trump.

The wording of commitment to the declaration is essential.

While 3.5% of target expenses will cover the basic defense requirements, 1.5% will be spent for “depent -related expenses” – a suitably wide expression that encompasses investments in everything, from cybersecurity to infrastructure.

Reaching the basic defense expenditure target of 3.5% will always require a significant adjustment for the majority of NATO countries. Out of 32 allies, 27 spend less than 3%, with eight hovering well below the 2% threshold set by the Alliance in 2014.

Monday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has promised that the United Kingdom achieves the target of 5% by 2035.

He said that the United Kingdom was to “sail in this radical era of uncertainty with agility, speed and a clear sense of national interest”. The British government said it expected to spend 2.6% of GDP for basic defense in two years, as well as 1.5% in defense areas.

At the bottom of the failure is Spain, whose defense expenses are less than 1.3%.

Madrid should more than double its funding to reach the new target of Rutte – something that Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has long resisted, arguing that he “would not only be unreasonable but also counterproductive”.

Above all, it would also be unpopular at home – especially among its left governance coalition – at a time when the Government of Sánchez vacillates.

Sánchez said on Sunday that Spain had concluded an agreement that would see it exempt from the target – something Rutte quickly pushed. “NATO is absolutely convinced that Spain will have to spend 3.5% to get there,” he said on Monday.

Sánchez’s suggestion of a lower expenditure threshold was sufficient in Belgium and Slovakia to also express the interest for an exemption – the hard image of Rutte of a united alliance.

“I can assure you that for weeks, our diplomats worked hard to obtain the flexibility mechanisms,” said Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot. Brussels expenses are currently 1.3% – and Slovakia also said it reserves the right to decide when reaching the new target.

Despite their comments, the 32 states should register for the new commitment.

While NATO leaders and leaders of more than a dozen partner states have headed for The Hague, travel trips from Schiphol airport near Amsterdam were seriously disturbed after the cables were damaged by fire.

Security Minister David Van Weel said sabotage could not be excluded. “It could be a group of activists, it could be another country. It could be anything,” he told the public broadcaster. “The most important thing now is to repair cables and move traffic.”