Donald Trump came, he saw, he won. And NATO survived. The agreement to increase spending to 5% - in the famous 3.5+1.5 percent split - was approved by European leaders, thus confirming the agreement reached in recent days.

The text of the final declaration foresees that the "Allies will allocate at least 3.5% of their annual GDP, by 2035, to finance basic defence requirements and to meet NATO capability objectives".

Pedro Sanchez backs out with Spain , because he believes he can fulfill his obligations with 2.1%, as calculated (he says) by the military. Trump is angry, but he doesn't break the table but specifies: "It's terrible, it doesn't want to pay its share, we will apply double duties". Madrid's response was not long in coming: "Negotiations on duties are done with the European Union".

The final communiqué contains five paragraphs, where the US wishes have found full space. Russia is defined as "a long-term threat" but there are no references to the war of aggression in Ukraine , precisely so as not to disturb the peace process imagined by Trump. The allies, then, "reaffirm their sovereign commitment to provide support" to Kiev - or, translated from diplomatic jargon, everyone does as they please, especially the United States - but, at the same time, the principle of the "irreversible path" towards NATO disappears completely, just as requested by the US. "There is no doubt that Moscow will take note, because for them documents are worth more than words," comments a high-ranking allied source.

Regarding the statements, Rutte, like British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, assured that the promises made to Kiev in the past "remain valid". Volodymyr Zelensky, he remarked, can be "sure of our support, here he is among friends".

Zelensky, unlike what happened at the G7, managed to meet Trump face to face and said he was satisfied: "It was a long and meaningful discussion, we addressed all the really important issues". Trump confirmed it: "It couldn't have gone better, Zelensky wants to see the end of the conflict". Vladimir Putin, in the new narrative, is in fact branded as "badly advised". The tycoon has even opened up to the possibility of supplying new Patriot batteries to Kiev. "Let's see what we can do, they are very difficult to obtain", he said in a marathon press conference in which he ranged from Iran to the conflict between Congo and Rwanda, from his relationship with Rutte to Gaza. Zelensky also had a mini summit with the E5 countries (France, Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom and Italy, basically the directory of the willing), in which he received the promise of "new sanctions on Russia".

As for Sanchez, he claimed the right to have a different path, which rewards "Spain and welfare". "We will deal directly with Madrid", the US president cut short, clearly interested in cashing in on the "monumental success" of the Hague summit.

Now politicians will have to make "hard choices" to find the money. At full capacity, that means an additional $1 trillion a year.

(Online Union)

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