Rutte: US is fully committed to NATO

European allies should not worry about the United States' commitment to NATO, Mark Rutte, the head of the military alliance, said on Tuesday, speaking ahead of a summit where a new spending target is expected to be approved.

The two-day meeting in The Hague is intended to send a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that NATO is united, despite previous criticism of the alliance by US President Donald Trump, and that it is determined to expand and improve its defenses to deter any attack from Moscow.

"The American president and the American senior leadership are fully committed to NATO," Rutte said at a public forum before the official opening of the summit, adding, however, that this commitment comes with the expectation that European countries and Canada will increase their defense spending.

The summit and its final statement will be short and focused on responding to Trump's call to spend 5 percent of gross domestic product - a big increase from the current target of 2 percent.

Rutte described the spending issue as "a stumbling block, a big frustration, which is the fact that we are not spending enough as Europeans and Canadians, and they want us to catch up with what the US spends."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he planned to meet with Trump in The Hague - although he will not attend the summit, as NATO officials have sought to avoid clashes between Trump and other leaders over the war in Ukraine.

Zelensky said in an interview with Sky News, broadcast on Tuesday, that the two leaders' teams were working on the organizational details and timing of the meeting.

Asked about the possibility of an end to the three-year war in Ukraine, Rutte said: "I can't predict when it will happen."

He also praised Trump for engaging with Putin.

Russia has cited its neighbor's desire to join the US-led transatlantic alliance as one of the reasons it invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that NATO - founded in 1949 to counter the threat from the communist Soviet Union - is designed for confrontation and is on the path of "uncontrolled militarization."

The war between Israel and Iran and the uncertain status of a ceasefire announced overnight by Trump make the summit much less predictable than Rutte and other NATO member states would like./ REL