NATO leaders meeting in The Hague on Wednesday agreed to raise defence spending to 5 percent of GDP and reaffirmed their mutual defence pledge – steps Donald Trump hailed as a “monumental win” for the US, which he says has carried an unfair share of the burden. But while all 32 allies projected unity, not everyone is convinced.
"We reaffirm our ironclad commitment to collective defence as enshrined in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty - that an attack on one is an attack on all," the leaders said in a summit declaration.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday lauded NATO's "tremendous" summit in the Hague as leaders wrapped up a meeting that saw the alliance back his demand to ramp up defence spending.
"I think the summit was fantastic. It was a big success," Trump told Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof.
Trump appeared keen to take the plaudits as he secured a key foreign policy win by getting NATO's 32 countries to agree to meet his headline target of five percent of GDP on defence spending.
"It's a great victory for everybody, I think, and we will be equalised," Trump said of the new spending commitment, ahead of the summit's main session.
NATO summit opens in The Hague amid unprecedented security and protests
Diplomats said that behind closed doors Trump insisted there was no greater ally than Washington and urged others to spend some of the new money on US weaponry.
The deal hatched by NATO is a compromise that allows Trump to claim triumph, while in reality providing wiggle room for cash-strapped governments in Europe.
It sees countries promise to dedicate 3.5 percent of GDP to core military spending by 2035, and a further 1.5 to broader security-related areas such as infrastructure.
Many people had expressed concern about the US President's apparent hesitation to fully back the alliance.
Trump had rattled his allies by appearing to cast some doubt on the validity of NATO's mutual defence clause, known as Article Five of the alliance treaty, telling reporters on the way to The Hague that it "depends on your definition. There's numerous definitions of Article Five."
Summit protests
During the two-day summit, critics had gathered to protest in several places outside the security zone reserved for the NATO summit.
"We spend too much money for the wrong reasons," says Marion, a handicapped LGBTQ+ activist who had come to a noisy gathering near The Hague's Central Station of people protesting the anti-gay policies of Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban and US President Donald Trump.
But she admitted that "it's a very difficult to be a pacifist nowadays, because I would like to help Ukraine," she says.
Just outside the World Forum, where the NATO summit took place, a small group of pro-Ukraine activists is holding up banners.
"We see that the regime in Russia threatens not only Ukraine, but Europe just as well," says Cyril Schmidt, secretary of the NGO Free Russia NL. "We fear that the current NATO as it is now is not well prepared for full scale war with Russia," he says.
Another activist shows an uncanny likeness to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The man calls himself "Howard X," and says he is an "impersonator of Kim Jong-un since 2013. He brands the same haircut and clothes as the dictator.
He says he came to The Hague to "raise awareness" about what he thinks are the destructive policies of Donald Trump. "He's no longer supporting democracies. He's on the side of dictators and autocracies.
Schmidt adds that "as of now NATO very much depends on American support," while he says he hopes that "US support will not vanish," but in spite of Trump's promises, Howard X is sceptical.
"The USA can no longer be relied upon," he says, should Europe or any of the NATO countries be invaded by a foreign power. So Europe you better pick up and arm yourselves, because dark days are coming."
