At the start of the second day of the NATO summit in The Hague, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed optimism about the upcoming decision on increasing defense spending. “I believe we will make a joint decision today that will equip NATO with significantly better resources in the future” Merz said in a statement on Wednesday morning. “We will adopt a resolution that NATO will allocate 3.5 percent and an additional 1.5 percent for infrastructure in the future.”
Merz indirectly rejected the impression that the increase in defense spending was primarily aimed at pleasing US President Donald Trump. “I want to emphasize: The decisions we make are not taken to favor someone, but rather out of our own recognition and conviction that NATO, particularly the European part of NATO, needs to do more in the next few years to secure its own defense capabilities” he said. Russia poses a threat to the entire peace and the entire political order of the continent.
Earlier, Trump had published private messages from NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, in which Rutte congratulated the US President on his decisive actions, stating that Trump had achieved something no US President had accomplished in decades. Rutte had stated in a press statement that the publication of the messages was not a problem.