by Gideon Rachman at Financial Times
Without more military aid, Kyiv’s situation on the battlefield could deteriorate rapidly
“Daddy’s home,” proclaimed the White House, hailing Donald Trump’s return from last week’s Nato summit. That social media post was a reference — at once triumphant and mocking — to the title bestowed on Trump by Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary-general. Rutte might reason that demeaning himself is a small price to pay to keep the alliance together. And European leaders did seem broadly content, after the first Nato summit of Trump’s second term.
Fears of the US president walking out of the summit — or even the alliance itself — did not come to pass. All the European members of Nato have now committed to spending 5 per cent of GDP on defence — broadly defined.
One European leader lists three major achievements from the summit. First, Nato has refocused on its key mission — which is the deterrence of Russia. Second, the alliance is returning to cold war levels of defence spending, in response to Russia’s continuing military build-up. Third, as European defence spending rises, Nato will become a more balanced alliance between the US and Europe…
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