Nato summit delivers unity and billions in defence deals, Rutte says

Secretary general says allies are strengthening the alliance after agreeing to higher spending, amid continued pressure from Trump Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte defended US President Donald Trump’s criticism of the transatlantic security alliance, while saying this year’s summit showed “a huge sense of unity” and produced procurement plans worth tens of billions of dollars. During a press conference after the North Atlantic Council meeting of leaders at the Nato summit hosted by Turkey in Ankara on Wednesday, Rutte said this year’s gathering had resulted in more than US$50 billion in procurement deals as part of efforts to meet the defence spending target of 5 per cent of GDP by 2035, agreed at last year’s summit in The Hague. These investments will support Nato’s capability targets across all domains, including deep precision strike, integrated air and missile defence, uncrewed systems, cutting-edge technologies and intelligence capabilities, as well as developing “interoperable transatlantic warfighting clout” and adopting powerful AI models, Rutte said.

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