Trump threatens Nato on eve of summit

Nato allies must step up defence spending “immediately” or face consequences, the Trump administration said on the eve of a key summit.

US officials warned that many allies were “lagging behind” their pledge to spend 5 per cent of GDP on the military by 2035.

Sir Keir Starmer announced a £15bn uplift in defence spending this week but that will only raise the UK figure to 2.7 per cent of GDP by 2029.

Matt Whitaker, the US ambassador to Nato, said on Sunday night: “Some allies are doing more than others. Poland, the Nordic countries, the Baltic countries lead the way.

“But many others are lagging behind, and President Trump expects all allies to step up immediately and not only get on a sustainable path to the 5 per cent but to get to 5 per cent as soon as possible.”

Donald Trump is thought to be planning to reward or punish countries based on their defence spending. 

Higher spending is likely to bump countries up the queue for the purchase of US weapons and mean they are invited for more face-to-face meetings with the president.

Meanwhile, Pete Hegseth, Mr Trump’s defence secretary, has begun a six-month review of military size and readiness in Europe, which could lead to withdrawing forces from countries who do not meet spending targets.

Senior US officials reiterated on Sunday that failure to meet the 5 per cent target would result in a “less capable Europe and Canada” in the long term.

They said Mr Trump would spell out any specific consequences for countries that failed to heed that warning in person at the Nato summit, which starts in Ankara, Turkey, on Tuesday.

It threatens to put the US president on a collision course with Britain over defence spending, after Sir Keir played down hopes earlier this week of finding extra cash for further increases.

The Prime Minister announced cuts to planned infrastructure projects to fund his latest defence boost, but suggested that Andy Burnham, the new Labour MP for Makerfield, who is expected to succeed him, will have to increase borrowing to shoulder around £5bn of the latest package.

The Telegraph revealed this week that Mr Trump had little faith that Britain could turn around its defence spending woes.

The Nato summit will mark Sir Keir’s last opportunity to rebuild relations with the US president before he steps down.

Britain has sent its flagship aircraft carrier off the coast of Iceland in an apparent effort to please the Trump administration.

HMS Prince of Wales, a 65,000-ton warship, was dispatched to the High North as part of a Nato effort to counter the threat posed by Russia.

The carrier is hosting F-35 fighter jets, Britain’s most advanced planes, which are operating as part of Nato’s Arctic Sentry mission to confront hostile activity.

Mr Trump will also meet Volodymyr Zelensky during the Ankara summit to discuss “how we can end the war”, a senior US official said on Sunday, after the pair met on the sidelines of the G7 in Switzerland in June.

This year, Ukraine has improved its position on the battlefield and is threatening the Russian capital with drones. At the weekend it all but cut power to Crimea by bombing electricity substations, triggering panic in the occupied peninsula.

“The battlefield has clearly frozen over the last couple of months and neither side is making a lot of progress,” said the official. “The president feels a real sense of urgency to try to ‌bring this to ⁠a stop.”

Mr Trump’s meeting with senior Nato leaders comes just months after he told The Telegraph that removing his country from the defence alliance was “beyond reconsideration”.

His comments were seen as some of the strongest suggestions yet that he would not honour Article 5, Nato’s mutual defence clause, should an ally come under attack from Russia.

However, allies believe they will secure an American commitment at Ankara to the clause, which states that an “attack on one is an attack on all”.

A statement to be finalised by Nato’s 32 leaders will reaffirm an “ironclad commitment” to Article 5 and the alliance’s collective defence. The wording was agreed by national ambassadors at a meeting in Brussels last Friday.

The summit’s communiqué also includes a €70bn (£60bn) pledge of military support for Ukraine this year and “at least equivalent levels” of backing the following year.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]