NATO leaders gather for historic summit with unity on the line
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — NATO leaders were gathering in the Netherlands on Tuesday for the start of a historic two-day summit that could unite the world’s biggest security organization around a new defense spending pledge or widen divisions among the 32 allies.
The allies are likely to endorse a goal of spending 5% of their gross domestic product on their security, to be able to fulfil the alliance’s plans for defending against outside attack. Still, Spain has said it cannot, and that the target is “unreasonable.” President Donald Trump has said the U.S. should not have to.
Slovakia said that it reserves the right to decide how to reach the target by NATO’s new 2035 deadline.
“We are not living in happy land after the Berlin Wall came down. We are living in much more dangerous times and there are enemies, adversaries who might want to attack us,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said ahead of the summit in The Hague.
https://apnews.com/article/nato-ukraine-zelenskyy-trump-iran-israel-rutte-1cdf87daa23ac024ae050fed9b7b8c49