NATO allies agree to 5% defence spending

The NATO alliance has crafted a summit in The Hague this week to shore itself up by satisfying Trump with a big new defence spending goal.

The summit and its final statement will be short and focused on heeding Trump’s call to spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence — a big jump from the current 2 per cent goal. It is to be achieved by investing more in both militaries and other security-related spending.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, however, upset NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte's preparations on Sunday as he declared Madrid did not need to meet the new spending target even as Spain approved the summit statement.

Rutte insisted on Monday that Spain did not have an opt-out and NATO was “absolutely convinced” Madrid would have to hit the new target to fulfil its military commitments to the alliance.

“NATO does not have — as an alliance — opt-outs, side deals, et cetera, because we all have to chip in,” he told reporters in The Hague.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has had to settle for a seat at the pre-summit dinner on Tuesday evening — rather than a formal session with the leaders when they meet on Wednesday - due to his volatile relationship with Trump.

On Ukraine, Rutte said, Kyiv’s path to NATO is irreversible, adding that a NATO response to any Russian attack on the alliance would be “devastating”.

“There’s an irreversible path of Ukraine to NATO (...) that is still the truth today and it will still be true on Thursday after this summit,” he told reporters ahead of a two-day summit of the Alliance in The Hague.

Meanwhile, Russia accused Serbia of selling artillery ammunition to Ukraine through intermediaries in Eastern Europe, making the second such allegation in a month against its traditional Balkan ally.