The event is expected to have a decreased focus on Ukraine support compared to previous years
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte delivers opening remarks as he sits beside US President Donald Trump at the NATO Summit in The Hague, Netherlands, on June 25, 2025. © Global Look Press / Keystone Press Agency / Sean Kilpatrick
NATO leaders have convened for a two-day summit in the Hague. The agenda of the US-led gathering is expected to revolve around the stand-off between Israel and Iran, Tehran’s nuclear program, the Ukraine conflict, and an increase in member states’ defense spending.
The summit is the first one to be attended by US President Donald Trump since he returned to office in January. The US leader has for years been pushing the bloc’s members to ramp up their defense spending to as much as 5% of national GDP, while complaining that America is carrying the main burden.
While Ukraine’s conflict with Russia is still expected to be on the summit agenda, multiple media reports have claimed that attention given to it would be drastically reduced compared to previous years. Trump has repeatedly clashed with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky in public while being reluctant to commit new US aid to Kiev.
Trump signaled he would “probably” meet Zelensky – who was invited to an informal dinner – on the sidelines of the summit. A Washington Post report claimed that NATO officials are trying to keep the two leaders apart as much as possible in public while being mindful of “Trump’s occasionally volcanic disdain for the Ukrainian leader.”
The Israel-Iran conflict is expected to loom large on the agenda following US strikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities and the announcement of a ceasefire between West Jerusalem and Tehran. While Trump has claimed that Iran’s nuclear sites have been “completely obliterated,” several US media outlets reported that Washington’s airstrikes caused only limited and reversible damage.
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25 June 2025
14:54 GMT
US President Donald Trump has suggested renaming America’s secretary of defense the secretary of war. “It used to be called Secretary of War,” he has told journalists at the NATO summit in The Hague. “Then we became politically correct, and they called it Secretary of Defense.” The US could adopt the new name in a couple of weeks “because we feel like warriors.”
- 14:41 GMT
A conflict between Israel and Iran could be restarted “soon,” US President Donald Trump has told journalists at the NATO summit in The Hague. Both sides are currently “exhausted” by the hostilities, the president stated. “Can it start again? I guess, someday it can. It could maybe start soon,” he added.
- 14:07 GMT
While NATO touted the new 5% GDP defense spending target, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez publicly broke ranks, insisting that its current expenditure of 2% is “sufficient, realistic and compatible with the welfare state.”
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks during a press conference after the plenary session at the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, June 25, 2025. © AP Photo / Markus Schreiber
- 13:59 GMT
Trump and Zelensky have wrapped up a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit, several Ukrainian media outlets have reported, adding that talks lasted just under an hour.
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NATO members’ leaders snubbing Zelensky at key summit – OrbanNeither of the leaders have spoken to the press since the encounter.
- 13:56 GMT
NATO has released a brief five-paragraph-long communique, stating that the bloc’s members “commit to invest 5% of GDP annually on core defense requirements” while reaffirming support for Ukraine.
Ukraine, however, was only mentioned in one sentence, while the document said nothing regarding the prospect of Kiev’s membership in the bloc. - 13:32 GMT
Earlier in the day, speaking next to Trump, Rutte defended the US leader’s use of profanities to denounce reports of the violations of the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, stating that “Daddy sometimes has to use strong language.”
'Sometimes daddy has to use strong language.'Nato's secretary general Mark Rutte referred to US President Donald Trump as 'daddy' when discussing the Israel-Iran conflict at the summit in The Hague. pic.twitter.com/Ep6GhQ63HX
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) June 25, 2025
- 13:25 GMT
Pressed by CNN on whether he believed Article 5 of the NATO Charter – stipulating that an attack on one NATO member is an attack on the entire bloc – is “subject to interpretation,” Rutte described it as absolutely clear. Still, he sought to downplay the issue, adding that NATO will never go into details regarding the circumstances which could trigger it.
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His comments came after Trump suggested that the Article could have “numerous definitions.” In the past, the US leader threatened that he would not defend those NATO members who fail to reach the bloc’s joint spending target.
- 13:17 GMT
Responding to the question whether NATO’s defense spending hike is more linked to the desire to please Trump rather than to deter the perceived “Russian threat,” Rutte claimed that the US demands for increase of military expenditure date back to President Dwight Eisenhower and are generally a long-term tendency.
- 13:08 GMT
Asked whether Rutte’s messages to Trump, which have been seen as filled with obsequious flattery, make him look “weak,” the NATO chief rejected the notion, describing the US leader as “a good friend.” He added that Trump deserves recognition for pushing NATO towards increasing defense spending.
- 13:06 GMT
Pivoting to Ukraine, Rutte stressed that Kiev has NATO’s “continued support,” including at least $35 billion in assistance this year. “Our aim is to keep Ukraine in the fight today so that it can enjoy a lasting peace in the future… We will continue to support Ukraine on its irreversible path to NATO membership,” he said, without naming any timeline.
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