• NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte summarized the three priorities of the Atlantic Alliance on the eve of the Hague Summit. He said:
“Our defense budgets must increase,” he stressed. “Today, we are safe. But if we still want to be safe in three to five years, we have to make an extra effort. The proposed standard for defense spending was set on the basis of indisputable facts. Together, we have made a comprehensive inventory of our capability gaps and explored how to fill them; Last Thursday, the Defense Ministers approved the new capability objectives; now it is up to the Heads of State and Government to approve the defense spending standard that will enable us to implement these targets.”
“In the U.S., throughout Europe and Canada, we have industries that are remarkable, but they are not producing fast enough. They must therefore run faster and equip themselves with new production lines.”
“We must ensure that Ukraine is in the most favorable position possible not only today, to resist Russia’s aggression, perpetrated without any provocation, but also in the future, when a ceasefire or a lasting peace agreement takes shape. The goal is that Mr. Putin never ventures into an enterprise of this nature again.”
• Exceptional security measures surrounded the NATO summit in The Hague. However, the summit was kept to a minimum: just three hours of work, during which unelected Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was not admitted.
• US President Donald Trump has asserted himself as the undisputed leader of the West, basking in his glory for his role in the Israeli-Iranian ceasefire. Mark Rutte affectionately called him “Daddy” [after Trump had compared Iran and Israel with two fighting kids that need to be separated].
• The final declaration, which holds on a single page, reaffirms that member states will support Ukraine in the long term, nothing more. It said:
“Allies agree that this engagement [in response to Russia’s long-term threat to Euro-Atlantic security and the persistent threat of terrorism] will have two main components. On the one hand, by 2035, they will increase to at least 3.5% the share of GDP devoted each year to the financing of defense needs in the strict sense – i.e. the expenditure covered by the definition of defense expenditure agreed to NATO – and to the achievement of NATO capability objectives. Allies will present a national plan each year setting out a realistic path to achieve this percentage gradually. On the other hand, they will make investments with the aim of protecting their critical infrastructure, defending their networks, ensuring civil preparedness and resilience, unlocking innovation potential and strengthening their defense industrial base; they will be able to declare each year under this component expenditures representing up to 1.5% of GDP. The trajectory and distribution of expenditure set out here will be reviewed in 2029, in light of the changing strategic context and the review of capability objectives […] Aid that contributes directly to the defense of Ukraine and the development of its defense industry will be included in the calculation of the Allies’ defense expenditure.”
This is the editorial from our paywalled “Voltaire, international newsletter”, n°139. For more information, do not hesitate to subscribe: 500€ per year.