President Donald Trump departs early Tuesday for the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, simply days after he made the choice to launch strikes on Iranian nuclear websites and hours after he introduced a cease-fire within the Israel-Iran battle. It would be the first time Trump will face European U.S. allies since returning to the White House in January.
On the eve of Trump’s departure, Iran carried out retaliatory strikes at a U.S. base in Qatar. Trump stated Monday that 13 of these missiles had been intercepted and a 14th was off track.
“I am pleased to report that NO Americans were harmed, and hardly any damage was done,” Trump posted on social media, including that Iran gave the U.S. “early notice.”
Then hours later, Trump posted on his social media platform that the 2 nations had agreed to a cease-fire that may finish hostilities.
"This is a War that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will!" Trump posted early Monday night.
The battle will undoubtedly loom giant over this summit simply because it did with the G7 Summit in Canada final week — which Trump left early to watch the rising disaster between Israel and Iran again on the White House.
The journey will likely be temporary. Trump is anticipated to depart the White House early Tuesday morning and return to the U.S. on Wednesday night. Upon his arrival within the Netherlands on Tuesday night time, Trump will head straight into the pomp and circumstance. He will attend a proper dinner on the Netherlands Royal Palace alongside the King and Queen of the Netherlands. He may also take a NATO household picture that night.
On Wednesday, Trump will attend the NATO summit the place he’ll take part in a NATO household picture, a photograph spray on the prime of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s remarks after which the primary plenary session with NATO leaders. The president will then spend a number of hours engaged in bilateral conferences, though it’s not not but recognized which leaders he plans to fulfill with on the sidelines of the summit. Trump will then maintain a information convention the place he will certainly face questions on his order to strike Iranian nuclear websites and the affect of that mission. After the information convention, Trump is ready to depart the Netherlands and return to the U.S.
Trump goes into the convention with a key precedence: he needs the alliance to codify a rise in protection spending throughout all member nations, from 2% of their gross home product to five%. This has been a signature situation for Trump nicely earlier than the brand new Middle East battle. The president has lengthy complained that the U.S. has been subsidizing the protection of its allies — and has even gone as far as threatening that he wouldn’t come to the protection of countries not absolutely paying their approach, a radical departure from NATO’s Article 5, which says an assault on one is an assault on all.
Trump’s criticisms return so far as the 2017 NATO summit, when he accused his European counterparts of failing to pay what he stated was their “fair share.”
Though Trump’s prime advisers have signaled confidence that the 5% threshold will likely be agreed to by a vote at this 12 months’s summit, some nations like Spain produce other plans. Spain’s prime minister introduced over the weekend that it solid an settlement that can enable it to stay in NATO with out assembly the brand new protection spending threshold, as an alternative contributing solely 2.1% of the nation’s GDP.
Trump has a number of different goals for the convention, together with urging alliance members to revitalize their industrial capacities for vital minerals and weapons and bilateral conferences with world leaders to reaffirm a dedication to allies, a senior administration official stated final week in a name previewing the journey.
In the time since Trump final attended a NATO summit, Russia invaded Ukraine. The struggle in Ukraine has raged on for greater than three years and Trump has repeatedly claimed it will not have occurred if he had been in workplace. He has additionally blamed the struggle on Ukraine’s want to affix NATO. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been a featured visitor at NATO summits for the reason that struggle, together with the one former President Joe Biden hosted in Washington final 12 months, but it surely’s reported that Zelenskyy’s involvement will likely be restricted this 12 months — together with not having a seat on the desk.
This can also be Trump’s first NATO summit of his second time period, a reemergence within the alliance that he sharply criticized throughout his first time period. It additionally comes after many NATO leaders have already returned to the White House for bilateral conferences to debate key points and to achieve favor with Trump. Under the shadow of the rising battle within the Middle East, world leaders will likely be watching intently for a way Trump will enact his America First coverage in his second time period and the way that coverage will affect American alliances abroad.
