A two-day North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit is underway in The Hague. hashtag#NATO, with 32 members, is the world’s largest military alliance.
Leaders, defence and foreign ministers of 32 member states, along with representatives of NATO’s Indo-Pacific partners Japan, Australia, South Korea, and New Zealand are expected at the summit.
The Summit comes amid the shadow of War in Middle East (Iran-Israel ceasefire has been announced). Continued support for hashtag#Ukraine in the ongoing war with hashtag#Russia and higher defence spending by allies is high on the agenda.
hashtag#NATO countries are expected to vote in favour of increasing defence spending to 5% of GDP. This been a key demand from President Trump, who is expected to attend.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, the former Dutch Prime Minister, will chair the meeting for the first time. The Secretary General is likely to ask member states to set a new target of 5% of GDP for their defence budget by 2032, with 1.5% of this set aside for “soft spending” on infrastructure and hashtag#cybersecurity. Some countries like Spain have rejected the hike as unrealistic. Rutte has also urged member countries to boost their production of weapons and defence systems.
Rutte said that long-term support to Ukraine was of paramount importance and called for just and lasting end to Russia’s war of aggression. Ukraine’s potential membership of NATO is a key issue for Russia – Russia views expansion of NATO towards its borders as a direct threat to its national security. Split in NATO alliance have been visible – some Baltic states would like Ukraine to join NATO; Hungary has friendly relations with Moscow.
In the emerging world, how relevant is the 76-year-old trans-Atlantic alliance?
Is the demand for 5% of GDP spend on defence justified?
Kindly comment below.
𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐫: The article has reference to open sources including DW, Al Jazeera and the official website of NATO.
𝐏𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭: NATO