The NATO Summit 2025, in its 34th edition saw the member countries agree to increase their collective defence spending well beyond the previously agreed upon two per cent share of GDP.
NATO members, on June 25, pledged to increase spending on defence, saying the countries will now aim to spend five per cent of their GDP by 2035, three per cent more than its last-standing mark of two per cent. US President Donald Trump, who has been pushing his allies to increase defence spending, hailed the decision saying the additional money would be spent on ‘very serious’ military hardware.
The important meeting was held in Hague, a hustling and prominent city of Netherlands, presided over the Dutch King & Queen along with its member countries. The latest edition witnessed its members setting a new target for defence spending. The revised target of five per cent will be split into two parts – 3.5% for core military needs such as on troops, for hardware such as tanks and missiles, and an additional 1.5% for “resilience pillars” such as cyber‑security, infrastructure, and allied supply chains.
For the uninitiated, NATO is the acronym for North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and as the name indicates, this alliance is an inter-governmental transnational military alliance of 32 member states – 30 European and 2 North American. This body was conceptualized post the devastating aftermath of the World War II, and implements the North Atlantic Treaty signed in Washington DC in 1949. Currently, with its headquarters at Belgium, NATO has worked on the principle of ‘an attack on one is an attack on all’, the foundational Article 5, which is the central premise of the Treaty.
With the summit’s talks culminating on a productive tangent, another significant development has been US President Donald Trump’s triumphant meeting with the present-day NATO allies and its Secretary-General, Mark Rutte. Post the closure, he also addressed the media and has indicated that US and Iran ‘may sign an official agreement’, regarding Tehran’s nuclear program, as the two parties are scheduled to meet in the following week for a second round of deliberation. This important announcement came a day after it was declared that Donald Trump acted through a calculated brokerage for initiating a ceasefire with the two warring countries – Israel and Iran.
The two-day Summit which concluded on June 25, ended with a Royal Dinner at the King’s Palace, sending out strong signal to the international community on the unwavering commitment to foster peace and nuclear disarmament, which must be adopted and maintained by all the permanent, aspiring and allied countries.
Helene Elliott is the senior reporter for News Raise. She covers Science news. She also has a keen interest in photojournalism. Helene holds a nomination for the prestigious Red Smith Award. She is married to author Dennis D’Agostino, a former publicist with the New York Mets.
