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
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
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
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
Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) walks past Bundeswehr soldiers with military honors in front of the Federal Chancellery before welcoming the Prime Minister of Denmark. Bernd von Jutrczenka | Picture Alliance | Getty Images Tax hikes and soaring debt might be Germany’s new reality, as NATO allies are set to soon face a higher defense … Read more
NATO leaders are expected to agree this week that member countries should spend five per cent of their gross domestic product on defence, except the new and much vaunted investment pledge will not apply to all of them. Spain has reached a deal with NATO to be excluded from the five per cent of GDP … Read more
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth holds a bilateral meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte (2nd L) at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, April 24, 2025. Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images Fireworks could kick off during NATO’s annual summit this week, as the U.S. pushes its allies to sharply increase their defense … Read more
The success of a key NATO summit hung in the balance on Friday, after Spain announced that it cannot raise the billions of dollars needed to meet a new defence investment pledge demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump and his NATO counterparts are meeting for two days in the Netherlands from next Tuesday. He … Read more
As Senate Republicans release key details of President Donald Trump’s spending package, some provisions, including the federal deduction for state and local taxes, known as SALT, remain in limbo. Enacted via the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or TCJA, of 2017, there’s currently a $10,000 limit on the SALT deduction through 2025. Before 2018, the … Read more