Paul Kirby Europe digital editor JOHN THYS/AFP The US president (L) has been pushing for Nato allies to “equalise” their defence spending for some time Nato leaders meeting in The Hague have agreed to ramp up defence spending to 5% of their countries’ economic output by 2025, following months of pressure from US President Donald … Read more
NATO leaders — including Canada — have approved a plan to dramatically increase defence spending across the Western alliance to five per cent of the gross domestic product over the next decade, a decision that has given U.S. President Donald Trump a significant policy victory. They gathered behind closed doors in the Netherlands on Wednesday, … Read more
Mark Rutte, secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), left, and U.S. President Donald Trump, during the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, on Wednesday, June 25, 2025. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images NATO allies on Wednesday agreed to more than double their defense spending target from 2% of gross domestic product … Read more
NATO leaders are meeting to debate whether to more than double the alliance’s defence spending target. Prime Minister Mark Carney is among the leaders around the table at the annual leaders’ summit in The Hague, where a proposal is being discussed to increase the target to five per cent of annual GDP, up from the … Read more
The NATO summit in the Netherlands. Haiyun Jiang | Via Reuters It’ll be a moment of truth for NATO on Wednesday when the Western military alliance releases a joint statement on a heavily pushed and previewed collective defense spending hike. Allies have been corralled, cajoled and pressured to hike their defense expenditure from 2% to … Read more
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte praised U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to order what he called “truly extraordinary” military strikes on Iran in a series of text messages before the military alliance meets in the Netherlands. Those messages, which Trump posted to his social media platform, Truth Social, reveal Rutte was impressed that Trump decided … Read more
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Tuesday praised U.S. President Donald Trump for his “decisive action” against Iran and pushing allies to boost defence spending in a text message that Trump made public and NATO confirmed was legitimate. Trump posted screenshots of the lengthy text message to his Truth Social website as he headed to Brussels … Read more
NATO allies will try to ensure this week’s summit isn’t derailed by the fallout from U.S. military strikes on Iran, experts say, but the conflict may still be “the elephant in the room.” U.S. President Donald Trump late Monday announced that a ceasefire between Israel and Iran would be phased in over a 24-hour period. … Read more
Laura Gozzi & Paul Kirby BBC News Reuters Security is tight at the Nato summit – President Trump’s first since 2019 German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has warned that Russia’s president understands only the language of force and that Tuesday’s “historic” Nato summit in The Hague will aim to ensure peace in Europe for generations to … Read more
Prime Minister Mark Carney begins a two-day stop Tuesday in the Netherlands, where NATO alliance members are prepared to decide whether to more than double the defense spending target. The main talks in The Hague won’t happen until Wednesday, with Carney first set to take part in several bilateral meetings. Carney will meet with the … Read more