32 nations but only one man matters

NATO summits tend to be “prior cooked”, not the least of which is the presentation of a unified front.

Secretary -General Mark Roti has already settled on the list for his meeting in The Hague: One of them avoids a row with the strongest member of NATO, the United States.

Commitment to increased defense spending by European allies is the dish that President Donald Trump wants to serve – and this is exactly what he will get. Although there will be inevitable ingredients for settlement and candy.

The summit will not be able to paper on cracks between Trump and many of its European allies in trade, Russia and the escalating conflict in the Middle East.

The American president, who is a talisman, is America first, not a fan of multinational organizations.

He was also criticizing NATO’s NATO – it even doubts its founding of collective defense. During the first period of Trump, at the first NATO summit, he reprimanded European allies for not spending enough and because of “huge amounts of money”.

In that message, it was at least consistent.

Mark Root, who has a good relationship with the American president, has worked hard to win.

The summit will be held at the World Forum in The Hague for two days, on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.

Now the main discussions will last for only three hours and the summit statement will be reduced to five paragraphs, and according to what was stated due to the demands of the American president.

Trump is one of 32 leaders of the Western Defense Alliance who will come, along with the heads of more than ten partner countries.

Dutch police have launched the largest security operation ever for the most expensive NATO summit, at a cost of 183.4 million euros (155 million pounds; 210 million dollars).

Some have suggested that the summary of the summit is partial to meet the needs of the US President’s interest and hate long meetings. But a shorter summit with fewer topics discussed, and most importantly, helps hide divisions.

Ed Arnold, from the research motivation, says Trump loves to be the star of the show and expects that he will be able to claim that he forced European countries to act.

In fact, he is not the first American president to criticize the defensive allies spending. But it was more successful than most of them. Court Volcker, the former American ambassador to NATO, admits that some European governments do not like the way Trump went around – asking the allies to spend 5 % of the gross domestic product of the defense.

Europe still only represents 30 % of NATO military spending. Volcker says that many Europeans now admit that “we needed to do so, even if it was unfortunate that it took such a kick in the pants.”

Some European countries have already enhanced their defensive spending on 5 % of their gross domestic product. Most of them are countries that live close to Russia – such as Poland, Estonia and Lithuania.

Not only Trump was the one who accumulated pressure. The invasion of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Ukraine is forcing the response.

But in reality many NATO members will struggle to achieve the new goal. Not a few target achieved 2 %, appointed more than a decade ago.

The RUTTE compris form is to increase their primary defensive spending to 3.5 % of GDP, with an additional 1.5 % towards defense -related spending.

But it seems that the definition of defense spending is so vague that it may become meaningless. Root says it can include the cost of infrastructure industry – building bridges, roads and railways. Ed Arnold, from Russian, says he will definitely lead to more “creative accounting”.

Even if the goal of the new spending is approved, as expected, some countries may not have a small intention to reach it – by 2032 or 2035. The time range is still unclear. The Prime Minister in Spain has already described it unreasonable and reverse results. Mr. Kiir Starmer has not been able to determine when the UK will spend 3 % of the GDP of defense. UK Prime Minister said only that he was an ambitious time in the next parliament. However, given the UK government policy of NATO at the heart of the UK’s defense policy, will have to support the new plan.

The real danger is to explain the demand for an increase in defense spending as a symbolic gesture – or just bowing to us pressure. It is also driven by NATO defense plans on how to respond to an attack by Russia. Roti himself said that Russia could attack the NATO country within five years.

These defense plans are still confidential. But Roti has already determined what the coalition lacks. In a speech earlier this month, he said that NATO needs an increase of 400 % in air defenses and missile: thousands of vehicles and other armored tanks, and millions of artillery shells.

Most member states, including the United Kingdom, do not meet after the obligations of NATO. This is why Sweden plans to double the size of its army and Germany is looking to strengthen the numbers of its forces by 60,000.

Plans in granular details on how the coalition defends its eastern wing in the event of invasion of Russia. In a recent speech, the head of the US military in Europe, General Christopher Donahu, highlighted the need to defend the Polish and Lievian lands near the Russian Calingrad pocket. He said that the alliance looked at its current capabilities and “a very quickly investigation that it is not enough.”

However, it is strange that specific discussions on Russia and the war in Ukraine will be kept silent. It is the big issue that now divides Europe and America. “Do not see Ukrainian security necessary for European security, but our European allies are doing it,” says Court Volcker, during the Trump era.

Trump has already destroyed the United NATO front by speaking to Putin and blocking military support to Ukraine.

Ed Arnold says that controversial issues have been stripped of the summit. It is not the least to avoid division with Trump. Leaders were supposed to discuss Russia’s new strategy, but not on the agenda.

Ukrainian President Folodimir Zellinski has been invited to the top of the summit, but he will not participate in the main discussions of the North Atlantic Council.

He hoped to be the top of his first as a short and sweet general secretary. But with Trump’s dispute with most of his allies in Russia, the biggest threat facing the coalition, there is no guarantee that he will go according to the plan.