NATO has finally succumbed to pressure piled up by Donald Trump for demanding that the group increase its defence spending over US security guarantees.
NATO foreign ministers meeting in Antalya from Wednesday will look to forge a compromise deal on ramping up defence spending as allies scramble to satisfy US President Donald Trump’s demand to agree to five per cent of GDP at a summit next month.
The two-day gathering in the sun-baked Turkish seaside resort comes as diplomatic intrigue swirls over a possible meeting across the country in Istanbul between Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
But it will be the interval wrangling over NATO’s spending target that dominates the meeting of the debate Thursday, arguing the foreign minister, with just over six weeks before leaders come face-to-face with Trump in The Hague.
Trump has piled on pressure ahead of the summit by insisting he wants NATO to agree to devote five per cent of GDP to defence—a level no member, including the United States, currently reaches.
The business tycoon now in control of the world’s most powerful country has rattled European allies worried about the menace from Russia by threatening not to protect countries that, in his eyes, don’t spend enough.
In a bid to prevent him from blowing up the alliance, NATO boss Mark Rutte has floated a proposal for allies to commit to 3.5 per cent of direct military spending by 2032, as well as another 1.5 per cent of broader security-related expenditure.
That would hand Trump the headline figure he’s demanding while giving enough wiggle room to European allies who are struggling just to reach NATO’s current spending threshold of two per cent.
“Trump will be able to claim victory and say that he got NATO to spend five per cent,” one senior NATO diplomat told reporters here on Thursday.
“In reality, it will be more complicated than that — but that will be the essential political message from the summit,” he added.
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