Key NATO Summit: What Is the Future of the North Atlantic Alliance? – COMMENTARY

As NATO leaders gathered in The Hague, their show of unity masked a deeper divide over how – and how quickly – Europe should prepare for an era of renewed military threat.

After US President Donald Trump’s press conference in The Hague ended shortly before 5 PM on Wednesday and his motorcade headed for the airport, an almost euphoric sense of relief swept across Europe. Trump referred to Europeans as friends, praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for his heroic struggle, and framed the summit’s main outcome – a pledge to spend five percent of GDP on defence within ten years – as a personal success.

Join our event

And he is undoubtedly right. Democratic Europe as a whole would never have been able to achieve such a commitment alone – not least because the sense of threat from possible Russian aggression tends to decrease the further a country is from the Russian border.

Now, however, it is clear that Europe can and will rely less and less on America. On this front, Trump has taught us – and will undoubtedly continue to teach us – a lesson that cannot be forgotten.