US President Donald Trump met on Wednesday with members of the NATO alliance, an organisation he has consistently sought to influence over the years. His latest comments, casting doubt on the US commitment to mutual defence guarantees, have clearly rattled its members.
Trump`s remarks en route to the Netherlands, stating his fidelity to Article 5 “depends on your definition,” drew significant attention at the NATO summit. Also under scrutiny will be the new and fragile Iran-Israel ceasefire, which the Republican president helped broker after the US conducted airstrikes on Iran`s nuclear facilities.
Simultaneously, the alliance is poised to enact one of Trump`s chief priorities: a pledge by NATO member countries to significantly increase their defence spending. “I`ve been asking them to go up to 5 per cent for a number of years,” Trump said Wednesday during his meeting with Mark Rutte, the alliance`s secretary-general. “I think that`s going to be very big news.”
This boost in spending follows years of Trump`s complaints that other countries were not contributing their fair share to an alliance created as a bulwark against threats from the former Soviet Union. Most NATO countries, with the notable exception of Spain, are preparing to endorse the 5 per cent pledge. Their motivation stems not only from Russian President Vladimir Putin`s invasion of Ukraine but also, perhaps, from a desire to placate Trump.
As a candidate in 2016, Trump suggested that as president, he would not necessarily adhere to the alliance`s mutual defence guarantees, as outlined in Article 5 of the NATO treaty. In March of this year, he expressed uncertainty that NATO would come to the United States` defence if needed, despite the alliance having done precisely that after the September 11, 2001 attacks. On Tuesday, aboard Air Force One en route to The Hague for the summit, he told reporters that his commitment to Article 5 “depends on your definition.”
“There`s numerous definitions of Article 5. You know that, right?” Trump said. “But I`m committed to being their friends.” He indicated that he would provide a more precise definition of what Article 5 means to him once he arrived at the summit.
New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, who travelled to The Hague and met with several foreign leaders at the summit, reported that other countries raised “understandable questions” about the US commitment to the alliance, “certainly given President Trump`s past statements.” Shaheen, who represented the US Senate alongside Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, affirmed, “We were very strong and reassuring everyone that we are committed to NATO, we are committed to Article 5, we are committed to maintaining troops on the Eastern flank.”
Trump also vented to reporters before leaving Washington about the actions by Israel and Iran after his announced ceasefire, although on Monday, he had described the ceasefire as “very good.” After Trump arrived in the Netherlands, news outlets, including The Associated Press, reported that an early US intelligence assessment suggested Iran`s nuclear program had been set back only a few months by weekend strikes, and was not “completely and fully obliterated,” as Trump had claimed.
However, on Wednesday morning, Trump and other senior Cabinet officials vigorously pushed back on this assessment. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the administration was launching an investigation into who disclosed those findings to reporters. “That hit ended the war,” Trump asserted.
Drawing controversial comparisons to the atomic bombings by the US during World War II, he added: “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.”
The White House has not disclosed which other world leaders Trump would meet with one-on-one while in The Hague, but Trump confirmed during his meeting with Rutte that he would meet with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy later on Wednesday.
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