NATO Summit: Western Nations Barely Maintained Their ‘Unity’

Editorial

15:16 JST, June 27, 2025

At a time when the international situation is extremely tense, it is praiseworthy for the moment that the United States and European countries have placed the highest priority on confirming their unity. However, it remains to be seen whether their strong alliance can be maintained in the future.

At the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit held in The Hague, the Netherlands, the 32 member nations agreed on a new target to increase defense spending from 2% of gross domestic product to 5%. They aim to achieve the target by 2035.

Of the 5%, 3.5% will be allocated to “core defense requirements,” such as equipment procurement, while 1.5% will be assigned to strengthening defense-related infrastructure, such as ports and roads, and investing in the defense industry, among other purposes.

The 5% target was demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has criticized Europe for its low share of defense spending. European countries have agreed to this despite their difficult fiscal conditions only because they are taking the threat of Russia, which is engaged in aggression against Ukraine, more seriously.

Russia and Ukraine are engaging in a new form of warfare, in which, for example, they are attacking each other with drones that can fly long distances at low altitudes. Further strengthening of defense and deterrence capabilities is essential to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of NATO members, and it is significant that NATO has agreed to increase its defense budget.

The leaders’ declaration clearly stated that NATO would reaffirm its commitment to collective defense based on Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which treats an armed attack on an allied member as an attack on the alliance as a whole. But until immediately before the start of the summit, Trump had said that whether he would support this “depends on your definition.”

In his first-term administration, Trump had also mentioned withdrawing the United States from NATO. It seems unlikely that he has changed his mind about leaving Europe’s problems to Europe. The latest agreement can be said to have been reached on thin ice, with Europe making major concessions in order to keep the United States in the alliance.

As a result, discussions on support for Ukraine, which was supposed to be the main topic on the agenda, did not go deeper. In consideration of Trump’s emphasis on Russia, the leaders’ declaration did not even include words that criticize Russian’s aggression against Ukraine. The raison d’etre of NATO could be called into question.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was invited to the NATO summit but did not attend. Japan had attended the summit for three consecutive years until last year, during which then Prime Minister Fumio Kishida worked hard to increase interest in the Indo-Pacific region, which is geographically distant from Europe. The decision not to attend is hard to understand.

Some believe that Ishiba was absent because he was wary of the United States asking Japan to raise its defense spending to 5% of GDP. However, strengthening Japan’s defense capabilities is a pressing issue that must be promptly addressed, and is a problem that should be decided by Japan on its own.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, June 27, 2025)