Leaders gather in Hague as Nato chief Rutte says higher spending top priority

7 hours ago Share Save Laura Gozzi & Paul Kirby BBC News Share Save

Nato Nato leaders gathered with King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima on Tuesday night ahead of Wednesday’s summit

Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte has said there is “no alternative” to the 32 member states spending more on defence, given the threat from Russia and the broader international security situation. The leaders of the Western defensive alliance have gathered in The Hague, where they are set to commit to spending 5% of national output on defence and related infrastructure. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has described the meeting as historic. It is US President Donald Trump’s first Nato summit since 2019 and as he travelled he appeared to raise questions about the alliance’s mutual defence guarantee under which an attack on one member is seen as attack on all. “There’s numerous definitions of Article Five, you know that right?”

Asked about Trump’s remarks, Rutte said on Wednesday that in his view “there is absolute clarity the United States is totally committed to Nato, totally committed to Article Five”. Wednesday’s main session is set to last only two and a half hours, with a brief final statement expected to endorse a spending pledge of 3.5% of GDP on defence and a further 1.5% on “defence-related expenditure”, although Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has described the target as unreasonable. Western leaders have all had to navigate their relationships with Trump, known for his sometimes unpredictable handling of diplomacy. The two-day Nato summit has already been scaled back, apparently to accommodate his schedule. Nato leaders gathered on Tuesday night for a group photograph before joining King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands for dinner.

EPA Trump raises a glass at the Nato leaders’ dinner, with Rutte smiling in the background

The Nato secretary general earlier told his European colleagues to stop worrying about the US commitment to the Western alliance and focus on investing in defence and supporting Ukraine. Rutte said Europe and Canada had already committed to more than $35bn (£26bn) in military support for Ukraine this year. Trump posted a pre-summit message Rutte had sent him, lavishing praise on the US president’s handling of Western alliance and the conflict in Iran.

“You are flying into another big success in The Hague this evening. It was not easy but we’ve got them all signed on to five percent,” Rutte wrote, in a message posted by Trump on social media. He also congratulated Trump on his “decisive action in Iran, that was truly extraordinary and something no one else dared to do. It makes us safer.”

Nato chief not embarrassed by message to Trump being made public

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky is due to meet Donald Trump on the sidelines of the Nato summit. The Ukrainian leader had a notoriously difficult meeting with the US president at the White House in February, before a more constructive exchange at Pope Francis’s funeral at the Vatican in April. Hours before Nato leaders arrived in The Hague, at least 20 people were killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said every attempt to bring Russia to the negotiating table had so far been unsuccessful. Missile attacks on the eastern city of Dnipro and the nearby town of Samar killed 17 people and wounded another 160, according to Ukrainian officials. Eighteen children were wounded in the attack on Dnipro, which damaged a kindergarten, schools and a passenger train, they said. An earlier missile strike on Sumy in the north-east killed three people, including a child.

Omar Havana/Getty Images Zelensky (L) was greeted by the Nato secretary general on arrival at The Hague

Although Nato member states are expected to approve a plan to raise the benchmark for defence investment to 5% of GDP by 2035, many of the allies are below that commitment. The German government backed a budget deal on Tuesday to hit that target by 2029. Some €62.4bn (£53bn) will be spent on defence in 2025, rising to €152.8bn in 2029, partly financed by debt and special funds. “We’re not doing that as a favour to the US and its president,” the German chancellor told parliament in Berlin on Tuesday. “We’re doing this out of our own view and conviction, because Russia is actively and aggressively endangering the security and freedom of the entire-Euro-Atlantic area.”

After the main summit meeting, Merz is due to meet UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and France’s President Emmanuel Macron as well as the leaders of Italy and Poland. Mark Rutte has spent much of the nine months since becoming Nato Secretary General working to get allies to commit to the 5% target. The figure is more than double Nato members’ current 2% guideline and seemed unthinkable – and unrealistic – to most when President Trump first set it in January. The nine Nato countries that missed their defence spending targets

Could this be the most significant Nato summit since the Cold War?

Who’s in Nato and how much do they spend on defence? The wording of the summit’s final communique is key. Reaching the 3.5% core defence spending target will still require a significant adjustment for the majority of Nato countries. Out of 32 allies, 27 spend under 3%, with eight hovering well below the 2% threshold set by the alliance in 2014. On Monday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged that the UK would meet the 5% target by 2035. He said the UK had to “navigate this era of radical uncertainty with agility, speed and a clear-eyed sense of the national interest”. The UK government said it expected to spend 2.6% of GDP on core defence within two years, alongside 1.5% on defence-related areas.

EPA Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez has argued his country should be exempt from the 5% spending target

Donald Trump praised Nato countries for being willing to lift defence spending to 5% in his first public remarks at the military alliance’s annual summit, and said that he expected the US to be fully in support.

The president was speaking at a preliminary press conference in The Hague that was dominated by his rejection of overnight reports that Iran’s nuclear sites were not destroyed in US bombing, and where he was also praised by the Nato chief, Mark Rutte, for being the “daddy”.

Asked about Nato before a morning plenary session of the leaders of all 32 Nato countries, where they will sign off on the spending increase, Trump said: “We’re with them all the way. They have very big things to announce today.

“I’ve been asking to go up to 5% for a number of years and they’re going up to 5%, from 2%, and a lot of people didn’t even pay the 2%. I think that’s going to be very big news. Nato’s going to become very strong with us.”

Under the new plan, Nato members will commit to lifting defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035, of which 3.5% is core military spending and the rest is infrastructure, intelligence, cybersecurity and other spending allies can already match.

Trump’s comments bode well for the alliance, which Trump has in the past doubted, complaining that its other members from Europe and Canada do not spend enough on defence while taking advantage of the US security umbrella.

Eager to maintain Trump’s upbeat mood, Rutte, the former Dutch prime minister, responded with praise. “I want to state that without President Trump this would not have happened,” and said that on Wednesday would come “the big splash”.

The new targets, Rutte continued, were “not about US taxpayers paying more” – with the US nearly in line with the 3.5% military spending target – but about “Europe and Canada paying more” to in most cases increase their defence budgets.

1:11 ‘This ended the war’: Trump compares US strikes on Iran to Hiroshima – video

Trump agreed and said that his predecessor, Joe Biden, had failed to make any progress on the issue. “When Biden was here it just died, it just died, like everything else died,” he said.

The secretary general also said that Trump’s bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites, with 14 13,000kg (30,000lb) bunker-busting bombs, was “extremely impressive” and sent a signal to other countries beyond Iran that Trump was “a man of peace” who was willing to use the “enormous strength of the US military”.

After a discussion about the damage to Iran’s nuclear sites, which included sweeping criticism by Trump of CNN and the New York Times for reporting on the US damage assessments, Rutte sought to end the discussion with further praise.

Recalling Trump’s strong outburst on Iran and Israel on Tuesday – where he accused both countries of not knowing “what the fuck they’re doing” amid reports of breaches by both of a ceasefire he had imposed – Rutte said: “Daddy sometimes has to use strong language.”

From 4h ago 11.17 BST ‘We made history’: Mamdani celebrates after shocking Cuomo in New York City mayoral primary Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. We start with Zohran Mamdani’s historic victory in the New York City mayoral primary. In a major upset, Andrew Cuomo who had been a recent favourite – conceded after it was clear the 33-year old democratic had built a substantial lead over the more experienced but scandal-scarred former governor. Mamdani’ appeared to have cleared the first hurdle on the road to become New York’s first Muslim mayor. Zohran Mamdani pictured at the ‘Zohran For NYC Election Night Party’ in New York City on 24 June 2025. Photograph: Derek French/Shutterstock In a speech to supporters, Mamdani said: “We made history,” adding: “I will be your Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City.” If his win is confirmed, Mamdani will be seen as the frontrunner for the 4 November mayoral election in New York, a city where Democrats normally dominate. After 93% of votes were counted in the primary’s first round, Mamdani, a state representative, had 43.5% of the vote. Cuomo was on 36.4%. Cuomo, who was attempting a political comeback after he resigned from office in 2021 amid a sexual harassment scandal, said he had called Mamdani to congratulate him. “He put together a great campaign and he touched young people and inspired them and moved them and got them to come out and vote,” Cuomo said. “I applaud him sincerely for his effort.” However, Cuomo told the New York Times he may still run in the November mayoral election as an independent. “I want to analyse and talk to some colleagues,” he said. In other developments: Donald Trump hit back at a leaked preliminary US intelligence assessment which cast doubt on the success of US military strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear sites. Trump said Iran’s nuclear programme had been set back “decades” by the strikes despite the reports suggesting they had only set it back by months. Ahead of meeting with other world leaders at a Nato Summit in the Hague, he said he believed “total obliteration” was achieved. “This was a devastating attack,” Trump told reporters. Asked about the intelligence reports, Trump said “they really don’t know.” He added: “The intelligence was very inconclusive. The intelligence says we don’t know. It could’ve been very severe. That’s what the intelligence suggests.”

Steve Witkoff , Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, called the leak “treasonous” and called for the individual responsible to be investigated

Meanwhile Nato secretary general Mark Rutte was full of praise for the US strikes, saying they “took out the nuclear capability of Iran”, he added that it been carried out in an “impressive way”.

As mentioned, Trump is at The Hague where leaders of the Western defensive alliance have gathered. They are set to commit to a new defence spending target of 5% of GDP and demonstrate that European allies are stepping up. This is Trump’s first Nato summit since 2019.

At The Hague, Trump confirmed commitment to Nato’s Article 5 which states that an attack on one member is seen as attack on all members. When asked about Article 5 he said: “We are with them all the way.” It was in contrast to earlier comments he made en route to The Hague. “There’s numerous definitions of Article Five, you know that right?” he had said.

Speaking at The Hague, Trump likened the US strikes on Iran to his country’s decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan in the second world war. “That hit ended the war,” he said. “That hit ended the war. I don’t want to use an example of Hiroshima, I don’t want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing that ended that war. This ended that, this ended that war. If we didn’t take that out, they would have been they’d be fighting right now.” Share Updated at 13.16 BST

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1h ago 13.52 BST Trump confirms US commitment to Nato at annual summit At the Nato summit today, Donald Trump confirmed the US is committed to Nato, despite his frequent criticisms of other countries and how much they pay for defense. As he made his way to the summit, he wouldn’t say whether he supported Article 5, the cornerstone of the Nato alliance that calls for mutual defense of members. But, according to Reuters, he said at the summit: “I stand with Article 5.” Trump is expected to speak in a press conference from the summit soon. To follow the play-by-play of the Nato summit, check out our liveblog from the event. Share Updated at 14.27 BST

2h ago 12.49 BST Trump praises Nato states as summit prepares to lift defence spending target Dan Sabbagh View image in fullscreen Donald Trump and Mark Rutte shake hands at the Nato summit. Photograph: Robin Utrecht/Shutterstock Donald Trump praised Nato countries for being willing to lift defence spending to 5% in his first public remarks at the military alliance’s annual summit, and said that he expected the US to be fully in support. The president was speaking at a preliminary press conference in The Hague that was dominated by his rejection of overnight reports that Iran’s nuclear sites were not destroyed in US bombing, and where he was also praised by the Nato chief, Mark Rutte, for being the “daddy”. Asked about Nato before a morning plenary session of the leaders of all 32 Nato countries, where they will sign off on the spending increase, Trump said: “We’re with them all the way. They have very big things to announce today. “I’ve been asking to go up to 5% for a number of years and they’re going up to 5%, from 2%, and a lot of people didn’t even pay the 2%. I think that’s going to be very big news. Nato’s going to become very strong with us.” Under the new plan, Nato members will commit to lifting defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035, of which 3.5% is core military spending and the rest is infrastructure, intelligence, cybersecurity and other spending allies can already match. Read the full report here: Trump praises Nato states as summit prepares to lift defence spending target Read more Share

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3h ago 12.11 BST Donald Trump said on Wednesday he believed that “great progress” is being made on Gaza, Reuters reports. “I think great progress is being made on Gaza, I think because of this attack that we made,” said Trump, suggesting the US strikes on Iran could have a positive impact on the Middle East. Share

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3h ago 11.40 BST Donald Trump struck a conciliatory tone towards Nato allies on Wednesday, framing an expected deal on increased defence spending as a “great victory for everyone” at their summit, AFP reports. “It’s a great victory for everybody, I think, and we will be equalised very shortly, and that’s the way it has to be,” said Trump, as European allies seek to catch up with US spending on defence. “I’ve been asking them to go up to five percent for a number of years, and they’re going up to five percent… I think that’s going to be very big news,” he said. Hosting the meeting, Nato secretary general Mark Rutte told reporters that Trump was in an “excellent mood” at the dinner hosted on Tuesday by King Willem-Alexander in his royal palace, and that the US leader appeared inspired by his hosts. “The day begins in the beautiful Netherlands. The King and Queen are beautiful and spectacular people. Our breakfast meeting was great!” he posted on the Truth Social network. Entering the meeting, leaders lined up to declare the summit’s planned spending hike as “historic”. Nato allies say the increase is needed to counter a growing threat from Russia but also to keep Trump engaged, with the US leader long complaining that Europe spends too little on its own defence. You can follow all the developments in The Hague over at the Guardian’s Europe Live with Jakub Krupa here Share Updated at 13.16 BST

3h ago 11.32 BST Here is a video of Donald Trump comparing the US strikes on Iran to Hiroshima. 1:11 ‘This ended the war’: Trump compares US strikes on Iran to Hiroshima – video Share

4h ago 11.22 BST We have more from The Hague. Reuters is reporting that when asked if the United States would strike again if Iran rebuilt its nuclear enrichment programme, Donald Trump said: “Sure.” Share

NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte has called US president Donald Trump “Daddy” while discussing escalating tensions in the Middle East.

As allied leaders gathered in the Netherlands for a historic summit that could unite them around a new defence spending pledge or widen divisions among the 32 member countries, the pair held a press conference in which Trump compared Israel and Iran to “kids fighting” and Rutte called Trump “Daddy”.

Trump said: “They are not going to be fighting each other, they’ve had it. They’ve had a big fight, like two kids in a school yard. They fight like hell, you can’t stop them. Let them fight for about two, three minutes, then it’s easier to stop them.”

Rutte responds with, “then Daddy has to sometimes use strong language,” and laughs.

Trump previously said Israel and Iran “don’t know what the f**k they’re doing”.

Mark Rutte: “Daddy sometimes has to use strong language.”pic.twitter.com/HyfF0dDpcx — Bastian Brauns (@BastianBrauns) June 25, 2025

The exchange came after the US president, while flying aboard Air Force One en route to The Hague, published a screenshot of a private message from Rutte saying: “Donald, you have driven us to a really, really important moment for America and Europe and the world. You will achieved something NO American president in decades could get done.”

Nato’s Rutte says ‘daddy’ remarks made at summit are ‘question of taste’

Image source, Reuters

Reporters have been asking Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte about his remarks to US President Donald Trump earlier today, in which Rutte described Trump as “daddy” while commending the president’s handling of the Iran-Israel conflict.

Asked by reporters about his choice of words, Rutte says: “I think it’s a bit of a question of taste,” and calls Trump a “good friend” who “deserves all the praise.”

Earlier in the summit, Rutte commented on Trump’s use of expletives on Tuesday when he expressed his frustration with Iran and Israel, saying “sometimes daddy needs to use strong language.”

The Nato chief has reportedly been nicknamed “the Trump whisperer” behind closed doors.