International • 16:27 • Modified at 16:47 Donald Trump to attend NATO summit in The Hague, US ambassador confirms Author s : Lotte van Coevorden and Aäron Loupatty US President Donald Trump will attend the NATO summit in The Hague. This was confirmed by Matthew Whitaker, the US NATO ambassador. Earlier, there were fears that the summit might be cancelled or that Trump would not show up. Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans had already reassured that the meeting would go ahead. Now, Trump's participation also seems to have been officially confirmed.
"We are planning for his arrival," the NATO ambassador indicated. Whitaker emphasized that Trump "will seize the opportunity" to talk to all NATO partners and allies in East Asia "to emphasize the importance of the trillions of dollars in investments" in defense. "We should absolutely expect Trump to be in The Hague for the NATO summit." The organizers of the summit and NATO had previously said they had no doubts that Trump would attend. With the words of the American ambassador, all doubts seem to have been removed.
'It's more than just rockets, tanks and howitzers' Matthew Whitaker, US NATO Ambassador If Trump doesn't come, the summit will not be a success, many people say. 'A lot depends on it, so this seems to be going in the right direction', says BNR's Europe reporter Michal van der Toorn. 'But ultimately Trump also makes his own decisions, and he is quite unpredictable. We can only assume that he will come once he has boarded Air Force One.'
Tomorrow and the day after, the foreign ministers of the NATO countries will meet in Antalya, Turkey, for an informal summit. Although no formal decisions will be taken during this meeting, the meeting is no less important: the consultation is considered a crucial preparation for the NATO summit that will take place in The Hague in June.
Read also Rutte wants NATO standard of 5 percent, with 1.5 percent for infrastructure and cyber security The United States seems to have one clear goal in mind: raising the NATO target to 5 percent of GDP. According to Whitaker, the Americans are "laser-focused" on that.
Insecurity Behind the scenes, there was uncertainty for a long time about whether the summit would go ahead, partly because of Trump's behavior and concerns about his loyalty to NATO and Ukraine. Defense and security experts saw this as reason to doubt whether the meeting in The Hague would take place.
Read also 'Trump will not attend NATO summit in The Hague if Europe does not raise NATO standard to 5 percent' NATO standard In previous negotiations, Whitaker has demanded that NATO countries make serious plans to increase their defense spending to 5 percent of GDP. That is far above the agreed 2 percent. Trump believes that NATO members should contribute more to the alliance. In his view, a defense budget of 5 percent of gross domestic product is not only feasible, but also more than reasonable.
Rutte's plan In conversation with the journalists, Whitaker reaffirms the importance of that 5 percent. But as far as the US is concerned, that expenditure may also go to investments in mobility, infrastructure and digital security, as long as it benefits military resilience and deterrence. 'It's more than just missiles, tanks and howitzers.' With that, he indicates that the US approves of Secretary General Rutte's plan to split up the new standard. Rutte wants 3.5 percent of the GDP of member states to go to direct defense investments. The remaining 1.5 percent may then go to investments in infrastructure and cyber security.
Read also Defense Minister Brekelmans: 'NATO summit will go ahead anyway' Two other important points for the US are the defense industry and the war in Ukraine. 'According to Whitaker it is only difficult to say how this will develop exactly, because according to him the war will then already be solved by the Americans', says Van der Toorn.
"Trump wants a good deal on that norm," Rob De Wijk, professor of international relations at Leiden University and affiliated with the Hague Center for Strategic Studies, said earlier. "If that doesn't happen, there's a chance he won't come to the NATO summit."
