World
Most NATO members endorse Trump demand to up defence spending
Most US allies at NATO have endorsed US President Donald Trump’s demand that they invest 5% of GDP on defence and are ready to ramp up security spending, the alliance’s Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Thursday.
“There’s broad support,” Rutte told reporters after chairing a meeting of NATO defence ministers at the alliance’s Brussels headquarters.
“We are really close,” he said, adding that he has “total confidence that we will get there” by the next NATO summit in three weeks.
European allies and Canada have already been investing heavily in their armed forces, as well as on weapons and ammunition, since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
At the same time, some have balked at US demands to invest 5% of GDP on defence; 3.5% on core military spending and 1.5% on the roads, bridges, airfields and sea ports needed to deploy armies more quickly.
Struggling to meet the goal
In 2023, as Russia’s war on Ukraine entered its second year, NATO leaders agreed to spend at least 2% of GDP on national defence budgets.
So far, 22 of the 32 member countries have done so, and others are still struggling to meet the target.
Trump and his NATO counterparts appear likely to endorse the new goal at a summit in The Hague on 24-25 June.
Trump insists that US allies should spend at least 5% so America can focus on security priorities elsewhere, mostly in the Indo-Pacific and on its own borders.
He has gained important leverage over other NATO countries by casting doubt over whether the United States would defend allies that spend too little.
The new goal would involve a 1.5% increase over the current 2% goal for defence budgets. It means that all 32 countries would be investing the same percentage.
The United States spends by far more than any other ally in dollar terms.
But according to NATO’s most recent figures, it was estimated to have spent 3.19% of GDP in 2024, down from 3.68% a decade ago. It’s the only ally whose spending has dropped since 2014.
While the two new figures do add up to 5%, factoring in improvements to civilian infrastructure so that armies can deploy more quickly significantly changes the basis on which NATO traditionally calculates defence spending.
The seven-year time frame is also short by the alliance’s usual standards. The far more modest 2% target, set after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, was meant to be reached over a decade.
US leadership at NATO
According to US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump has done nothing less than save NATO.
He told reporters that European allies around the table on Thursday had said: “We hear you. We all need increased capabilities. We all need to spend more. Thank you, President Trump, for reviving this alliance. It was an alliance that was sleepwalking to irrelevance.”
The extra spending will also be needed should the Trump administration announce a force draw down in Europe, where around 84,000 US troops are based, leaving European allies to plug any security gaps.
Asked what the Pentagon’s plans are, Hegseth did not explain but he said: “It would only be responsible for the United States to continually assess our force posture, which is precisely what we’ve done.”
“America can’t be everywhere all the time, nor should we be and so there are reasons why we have troops in certain places,” he said, offering the assurance that any review would be done “alongside our allies and partners to make sure it’s the right size.”
During the meeting, Hegseth and his defence counterparts also approved purchasing targets for stocking up on weapons and military equipment to better defend Europe, the Arctic and the North Atlantic.
The “capability targets” lay out goals for each of the 32 nations to purchase priority equipment like air defence systems, long-range missiles, artillery, ammunition, drones and “strategic enablers” such as air-to-air refuelling, heavy air transport and logistics.
Each nation’s plan is classified, so details are scarce.
The new targets are assigned by NATO based on a blueprint agreed upon in 2023, the alliance’s biggest planning shakeup since the Cold War, to defend its territory from an attack by Russia or another major adversary.
Under those plans, NATO would aim to have up to 300,000 troops ready to move to its eastern flank within 30 days, although experts suggest the allies would struggle to muster those kinds of numbers.
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A record 274 climbers reached the summit of Mount Everest in a single day this week, as critics warn the world’s tallest peak is becoming dangerously overcrowded with thrill-seekers willing to pay $15,000 for a shot at the top.
The surge shattered the previous Nepali record of 223 climbers set in 2019, Rishi Bhandari, secretary general of the Expedition Operators Association of Nepal, told Reuters on Thursday.
“This is the highest number of climbers in a single day so far,” Bhandari said, adding that the final summit total could rise even further as some climbers had not yet officially reported their successful ascents.
Nepal has already issued 494 Everest climbing permits this season, each costing climbers $15,000.
EXTREME TRAVEL DESTINATION TO RESTRICT POPULAR MOUNTAIN ACCESS
Climbers walk in a long queue as they head to the summit of Mount Everest in the Solukhumbu district, Nepal, on May 18, 2026. (Purnima Shrestha/Reuters)
Climbers this year are ascending only from the Nepal side of Everest because China reportedly did not issue permits for expeditions from the Tibetan side.
Nepal has already issued 494 Everest climbing permits this season, each costing climbers $15,000. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
Mountaineering experts have long criticized Nepal for allowing large numbers of climbers on Everest, warning that overcrowding can create life-threatening bottlenecks high on the mountain in Everest’s deadly “death zone,” where oxygen levels plunge to dangerously low levels.
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Mountaineers line up as they climb a slope during their ascent to the summit of Mount Everest in Nepal on May 31, 2021. (Lakpa Sherpa/AFP)
Nepal has attempted to respond to safety concerns in recent years by tightening rules and increasing fees for climbers, though some expedition leaders have defended the high number of climbers.
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“If teams carry enough oxygen it is not a big problem,” expedition organizer Lukas Furtenbach of the Austria-based Furtenbach Adventures told the outlet. “We have mountains in the Alps like the Zugspitze where we have 4,000 persons on top per day. So 274 is actually not a big number, considering this mountain is 10 times bigger.”
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s groundbreaking plan to grant Ukraine “associate membership” in the European Union has received mixed reviews in Brussels, with questions raised about its legality, feasibility and political implications.
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In a letter to his fellow leaders, seen by Euronews, Merz proposes a tailor-made status that would give Ukraine access to decision-making bodies without voting rights or portfolio and to certain EU-funded programmes on a “step-by-step” basis.
He also envisions Kyiv able to request assistance from other member states in the event of armed aggression through Article 42.7 of the EU treaties. This, he argues, would create a “substantial security guarantee” to deter Russia.
“It is now time to boldly move on with Ukraine’s EU integration through innovative solutions as immediate steps forward,” Merz tells his peers.
In Brussels, Merz’s letter drew attention and raised eyebrows amid ongoing efforts to lift Hungary’s veto on Ukraine’s accession by the time the 27 leaders meet in June.
His push was compared to the op-ed that the chancellor wrote last year endorsing the use of Russia’s immobilised assets to finance a so-called reparations loan to Ukraine. The op-ed shocked Brussels, and the audacious project eventually collapsed.
The letter is “a rather hasty statement, and not very well coordinated. The timing is strange, especially since in June we will have good news with the opening of the cluster, so this letter is a bit surprising,” said a diplomat, warning of widespread scepticism.
“We need to do things differently. There is indeed a timeline, with June in view, and there is a method. Things will move forward.”
A second diplomat cast serious doubt on Merz’s assertion that the “associate membership” would not require amending the EU treaties, just strong political will.
“I don’t see how this could work from a legal point of view. You would need to change the treaties for that. Associate members with all institutions by way of political arrangement? I don’t see it,” the diplomat said.
A third diplomat said that in the letter, “some ideas are better than others”, while a fourth noted the real debate among member states was yet to begin.
‘Merit-based’ focus
By contrast, the European Commission, which oversees the accession process, was more positive and welcomed Merz’s proposal as showing a “strong commitment from member states to make enlargement a reality as soon as possible”.
“It is increasingly clear that enlargement is a geostrategic investment in our prosperity, peace, and security. And Ukraine’s accession to the European Union is also fundamentally linked to the security of our union,” Guillaume Mercier, the Commission’s spokesperson for enlargement, said in a statement.
“It is equally important that we deliver on the completion of the Union with all the candidate countries that have been working towards accession for many years.”
Mercier noted that any innovative solution should be underpinned by the “merit-based” logic that is supposed to guide the complex multi-chapter accession process.
Earlier this year, the Commission pitched a “reversed” membership under which Ukraine would become a formal EU member and progressively obtain the tangible benefits that come with it. Capitals largely rebuffed the idea, calling it dangerous and unrealistic.
Merz’s pitch suggests gradual integration to access EU funds and high-level fora, but with formal membership only at the very end of the road.
The German letter comes as the bloc sees a window of opportunity to finally lift the Hungarian veto on Ukraine’s accession, which has left the process paralysed for two years. The new government in Budapest has launched consultations with Kyiv to discuss the rights of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine, a politically sensitive issue.
Brussels hopes that enough progress will be made to lift the veto in June and open the first cluster of negotiations with Ukraine, known as fundamentals, with the remaining five clusters unblocked across the remainder of the year.
It remains unclear how Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will react to Merz’s letter. Last month, he flat-out rejected any overture for “symbolic” membership.
“Ukraine is defending itself and is definitely defending Europe,” he said. “And it is not defending Europe symbolically – people are really dying.”
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