Rutte meets Trump ahead of Ankara NATO summit

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has met US President Donald Trump at the White House to prepare for the alliance’s summit in Ankara next month, using the visit to credit Washington with driving up European and Canadian defence spending, NATO said.

Rutte told reporters at the White House that European allies and Canada were “now on a trajectory to equalise their spending with the United States,” describing the gap as a problem that had persisted “since Eisenhower” and crediting Trump with resolving it.

He said European and Canadian defence spending in 2025 was almost 20 per cent higher than the year before, and in the Oval Office presented charts showing more than one trillion dollars in cumulative extra core defence spending by those allies since 2016, alongside figures on how European defence industry has supported tens of thousands of jobs in the United States.

The Secretary General said he had discussed NATO’s support for Ukraine and efforts to bring the war to a lasting peace, telling reporters that Ukraine was “doing so much better over the last five, six months than before,” which he attributed in part to American help. During the visit Rutte also met members of Congress on Capitol Hill, continuing the round of meetings ahead of the summit.

Closing his trip with an appearance at the Atlantic Council, Rutte set out what he expects from the Ankara meeting, saying the alliance would show it was delivering on the commitments made at The Hague last year, which he summarised as “transformation in defence investment, revolution in defence industry, affirmation of our enduring support to Ukraine.” The Hague summit in 2025 committed allies to a steep rise in defence spending, setting a path toward 3.5 per cent of GDP on core defence by 2035, a target NATO has since pressed members to meet.