Key takeaways from the NATO summit : NPR
President Donald Trump speaks at a press conference at the end of the NATO summit as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on the right, and the defense secretary Pete Hegseth listen to Hague, in the Netherlands on Wednesday, June 25, 2025.
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Alex Brandon / AP Photo
Wednesday, the Haye, Netherlands-NATO in the Netherlands was described as “transformational” and “historic”. “We are witnessing the birth of a new NATO,” said Finland president Alexander Stubb.
The 32 members of the largest security organization in the world approved a plan to massively increase defense expenses, “back at the level of defense expenses of the Cold War”, as Stubb said by US President Donald Trump and fears of the security threat posed by Russia.
Here are some of the take-out dishes of the two-day meeting in The Hague.
Tens of billions of dollars of new military spending
The non -binding expenditure agreement means a strong budget increase for European NATO members and Canada who will cost them tens of billions of dollars.
It is a major overhaul of how NATO calculates defense expenses. Until now, the Allies have set a target of 2% of the gross domestic product for their defense budgets. Now they will target 3.5% by 2035.
They will now be able to include weapons and ammunition that they provide to Ukraine in the equation, which makes the new target slightly easier to reach, but always difficult for Canada and a number of European countries with economic problems.
In addition to this, the Allies will devote 1.5% of their GDP to the upgrading of infrastructures – roads, bridges, ports and aerodromes – necessary to deploy armies at the front. The money spent to protect networks or the preparation of companies for future conflicts can be included.
Progress will be examined in 2029, after the next American presidential election.
Not everyone is on board. Spain has officially refused the agreement. Slovakia had reservations. Belgium, France and Italy will find it difficult to reach the new target.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte speaks at a press conference at the NATO summit in Hague, the Netherlands on Wednesday, June 25, 2025.
Matthias Schrader / AP
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Matthias Schrader / AP
A Trump commitment to collective defense
The leaders have reaffirmed their “commitment to Ferrout” towards the collective NATO defense clause, article 5. In recent years, Trump had sowed seeds of doubt as to whether the most powerful NATO – NATO – would come to date with any attacked ally.
Trump had seemed to condition this support for higher defense expenses. With the new pledge of NATO spending in the bag, he told journalists that “I left there saying that these people really like their country. It is not a scam. And we are here to help them protect their country.”
He added that “they want to protect their country, and they need the United States, and without the United States, it will not be the same.”
A Ukraine away
After Russia has invaded Ukraine by launching the largest land conflict since the Second World War in 2022, NATO’s summits have largely focused on kyiv’s support. This summit was different.
Previously, the emphasis was on the perspectives of membership of Ukraine and on bringing it closer to NATO without joining. But the final statement of the summit this time has made no mention.
Instead, the leaders stressed “their sustainable sovereign commitments to provide support for Ukraine”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was on site. He dined with other leaders of the Dutch King’s residence, had talks with several leaders and spent about half an hour with Trump.
The NATO plan was to concentrate the meeting only on the cause of Trump’s pets, defense expenses. Foreign Ministers met on the sidelines with their Ukrainian counterpart in an official NATO-Ukraine council.
In a minor victory for Ukraine and for allies who need to persuade citizens that their governments must spend more for defense, Russia has been identified as the star of “threats and challenges of deep security” with which NATO is confronted.
Prime Minister of the Netherlands Dick Schoof, on the right, is expressed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a meeting at the Catshuis on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Hague, the Netherlands, on Tuesday, June 24, 2025.
Markus Schreiber / AP
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Markus Schreiber / AP
A “beautiful group of people”
If there were doubts that the United States manages NATO, the summit eliminated them. A very shortened summit and a declaration of a page were ready to keep the American president happy and concentrated.
While Trump flew to the Netherlands, NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, sent an SMS gushing to the fact that he is on the verge of great success and saying: “Europe will pay significantly, as they should, and it will be your victory.”
Trump published the message on social networks. Rutte said he was not embarrassed and that everything was true.
After the meeting, Trump said that he had come to the summit sees him as a political chore, but he left convinced that the gathered leaders love the Alliance, their own country and, above all, the United States.
He called NATO leaders a “beautiful group of people” and said that “almost everyone said” Thank God for the United States “.”
