This week’s Nato summit in the Hague was marred by a tragic irony. Donald Trump achieved a major diplomatic victory as his calls for increased European defence spending converted into reality. The final summit declaration text announced Nato’s commitment to spending 5 per cent of its budget on defence and articulated its ironclad support for the Article 5 collective defence clause.
While the US president’s big win should have enhanced Europe’s sense of security against the Russian threat, the Nato summit left the alliance’s eastern flank with a feeling of grave unease. Trump’s inflammatory comments on the ambiguity of Article 5 left the Baltic States questioning whether Nato would confront Russia’s intensifying array of hybrid threats.
The sense of betrayal in Ukraine was even more palpable. The Nato final summit declaration’s refusal to condemn Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelensky’s marginal presence encapsulated the alliance’s growing Ukraine fatigue. While Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary-general, repeated the age-old trope about Ukraine’s irreversible path towards alliance membership, his words felt hollower than ever before.
The Nato summit’s dismissal of Ukraine’s concerns is emblematic of an alarming broader trend. After more than three years of attritional war with Russia, Ukraine finds itself lacking the manpower and weaponry to triumph. During their inflammatory Oval Office meeting with Zelensky, Trump warned that Ukraine was “running low on soldiers” and JD Vance, his vice-president, railed against forced conscription on the Ukrainian streets.
This week’s Nato summit in the Hague was marred by a tragic irony. Donald Trump achieved a major diplomatic victory as his calls for increased European defence spending converted into reality. The final summit declaration text announced Nato’s commitment to spending 5 per cent of its budget on defence and articulated its ironclad support for the Article 5 collective defence clause.
While the US president’s big win should have enhanced Europe’s sense of security against the Russian threat, the Nato summit left the alliance’s eastern flank with a feeling of grave unease. Trump’s inflammatory comments on the ambiguity of Article 5 left the Baltic States questioning whether Nato would confront Russia’s intensifying array of hybrid threats.
The sense of betrayal in Ukraine was even more palpable. The Nato final summit declaration’s refusal to condemn Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelensky’s marginal presence encapsulated the alliance’s growing Ukraine fatigue. While Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary-general, repeated the age-old trope about Ukraine’s irreversible path towards alliance membership, his words felt hollower than ever before.
The Nato summit’s dismissal of Ukraine’s concerns is emblematic of an alarming broader trend. After more than three years of attritional war with Russia, Ukraine finds itself lacking the manpower and weaponry to triumph. During their inflammatory Oval Office meeting with Zelensky, Trump warned that Ukraine was “running low on soldiers” and JD Vance, his vice-president, railed against forced conscription on the Ukrainian streets.