Donald Trump welcomed the allies’ military expenses on Wednesday on Wednesday, upon arrival at the NATO summit in Hague, before a long -awaited meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
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The promise of NATO members to increase their investments in the defense “is a great victory for everyone,” said the American president.
Donald Trump, who has often criticized the European “bad payers”, opted for a conciliatory tone, alongside the boss of the Atlantic Alliance Mark Rutte.
Europeans and Canada will “very soon” spend as much as the United States, he said. “I have been asking them to go to 5% for years, and they go to 5%. It’s huge (…). NATO will become very strong with us, ”said the tenant of the White House.
Everything has been done so as not to upset the unpredictable billionaire at this summit, which must be concluded with a simple message, expected in a final declaration collected in five paragraphs.
NATO members will undertake to drastically increase their defense expenses, reaching at least 5% of their GDP by 2035 – 3.5% of military expenditure stricto sensu, and an additional 1.5% for security in the broad sense.
And from his first speech when he arrived, Mark Rutte tried to sweep the concerns about the involvement of the United States within NATO. “For me, it is absolutely clear that the United States fully supports” the rules of the alliance, he hammered.
“In good humor”
The day before, on board Air Force One, Donald Trump had again disconcerted his allies, remaining elusive about the attitude of the United States in the event of an attack by one of the members of NATO.
Article 5 of the Atlantic Alliance Treaty can “define itself in several ways”, he had dropped in connection with the cornerstone of NATO which poses the principle of mutual defense: if a member country is attacked, all the others are related to its rescue.
In this context, the state of mind of the tenant of the White House is scrutinized with a magnifying glass.
“I found him exceptionally relaxed and in good humor yesterday,” said Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, host of this summit. “So I suppose that if he slept well at the palate and breakfast was good, it will also be in a good mood” during the summit.
In order to attract the good graces of the American president, Mark Rutte had sent him just before the summit a dithyrambic message, which Donald Trump did not fail to broadcast on his social networks.
American bombings in Iran? A “decisive action”, “really extraordinary” and that “no one else had dared to do,” he said.
Thanks to the Haye summit, “Europe will pay a huge price” to finance its defense “as it should have” and “it will be your victory,” Mark Rutte wrote again to Trump.
Zelensky “in a difficult situation”
At the heart of this great international raout, the meeting planned between Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president at midday will focus attention, four months after the humiliation suffered by Volodymyr Zelensky in the oval office.
What message does he want to send him? “I will tell him +how are you? +. He is in a difficult situation, he should never have been there, “said Donald Trump whose relations with Mr. Zelensky are complicated.
In Canada, the recent G7 summit – the club of major industrialized democracies – was marked by the anticipated departure of the American president and the lack of joint declaration denounced the “Russian attack” in Ukraine. Unlike previous years, when Joe Biden was at the head of the United States.
In The Hague, Donald Trump also returned to the situation in the Middle East, where the ceasefire between Iran and Israel “goes very well,” he said.
Thanks to American strikes, the Iranian nuclear program has been delayed by several “decades,” he said.
NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, hopes that the situation in the Middle East or the Zelensky-Trump meeting will not completely upset the choreography of the summit which he has already described as “historic”, thanks to the investments promised in terms of defense.
Despite the criticisms of Spain who judge this increase in military spending “unreasonable”.
