Trump attends NATO summit as allies agree to increase defense spending

President Donald Trump has just announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran and will travel to The Hague, Netherlands to attend the annual summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which he hopes to win another foreign policy victory by pushing European leaders to increase their defense spending.

The president is expected to land in the Netherlands on Tuesday and return to the White House on Wednesday.

It is Trump’s first NATO Summit has been in office since its term. In the past, he opposed NATO members because of his “free loading” in U.S. military protection. This time, European allies were eager to prove him wrong.

NATO reached agreements for all countries to increase its defense spending to 5% of GDP outside Spain.

Trump initially put forward a demand and is expected to be completed at the summit.

“This summit is indeed about NATO’s credibility, We urge all our allies to step up their efforts and pay their due share of transatlantic security,” said U.S. NATO ambassador Matthew Whitaker.

Spain complicated this consensus when Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez asked for a waiver of the new spending target – which would increase Spain’s target sharply compared to Spain’s 2% target.

As the Iran crisis grows, Trump’s previous week will include a trip to The Hague to meet NATO leaders

“We fully respect other countries’ legitimate desire to increase their defense investment, but we won’t do that,” Sanchez said.

Trump is expected to meet with Rutte and other world leaders and hold a press conference. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is also expected to participate, continuing to push Ukraine into the alliance and its collective defense agreement.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte boasted that allies “intensify equal responsibility for our shared security responsibilities.”

Trump said he doesn’t think the United States needs to reach its 5% target. “I think we should do that, but I think we should do that,” he told reporters last week.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte held a press conference ahead of the NATO summit in Hague, Netherlands.

Expectations at the upcoming NATO summit: Trump, spending, Ukraine, Iran

The president’s time at the summit will be short, spending about 24 hours on the ground. A government official said his meeting “will focus on issues of common concern and reaffirm the strong U.S. connection with our allies and partners.”

But they are when Trump can boast about the ceasefire between Israel and Iran.

“There has been a total agreement between Israel and Iran, and there is a complete and complete ceasefire (about 6 hours from now on, Israel and Iran are in trouble and complete their final mission ongoing!), which lasts for 12 hours, and this will consider the war and end!” Trump wrote about Truth Social.

Rutte suggested that NATO will stand in the United States after Iran launched a counterattack on three Iranian nuclear sites, after Iran launched a counterattack at its air base in Qatar.

“My biggest fear is that Iran has and is able to use nuclear weapons,” Rut told reporters before the summit.

He defended the U.S. strike against Iran after being asked about the similarities between the United States and Russia during his invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

This view shows the venue for the upcoming NATO summit, The Hague, Netherlands, June 23, 2025. Reuters/Christian Hartman

“This is NATO’s consistent position: Iran should not possess nuclear weapons,” he said. “I don’t agree that this is a violation of international law – what the United States does.”

In the ongoing war in Ukraine, Rutte hopes the summit will become NATO unification by Russian President Vladimir Putin. But the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran has made the meeting less predictable.

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The Iraq War in 2003 deeply divided NATO: France and Germany opposed the invasion, while Britain and Spain joined the coalition forces.