NATO leaders agree on spending hike, vow to defend each other

The Hague: NATO leaders agreed on Wednesday on a massive hike in defence spending after pressure from US President Donald Trump, and expressed their “ironclad commitment” to come to each other’s aid if attacked. The 32 leaders endorsed a final summit statement saying: “Allies commit to invest 5 per cent of GDP annually on core defence requirements as well as defence- and security-related spending by 2035 to ensure our individual and collective obligations.”

Trump says Vladimir

Putin wants to settle war in Ukraine “He’d like to get out of this thing. It’s a mess for him,” Trump said of the Russian president. “He called the other day, and he said, Can I help you with Iran?’ I said no, you can help me with Russia.’”

Trump is heaping praise on NATO, saying most of its leaders ‘love’ the US The president said he came to the NATO summit as a political chore, but is leaving convinced that the assembled leaders love the alliance, their own countries

and, mostly importantly, the United States. “I came here because it was something I was supposed to be doing. But I left here a little bit different,” Trump said.

He called NATO leaders a “nice group of people” and said “almost every one of them said thank God for the United States.’”

Trump praised most member countries for agreeing to increase defence spending, adding: “They need the United States and without the United States it’s not going to be the same.”

Trump defends allowing Iran to sell oil to China amid pause in fighting with Israel. Trump characterised the gesture as an indication that the US might be willing to let bygone be bygones with Iran. Asked if doing so could reduce economic pressure on Iran at a delicate time, Trump responded: “They’re going to need money to put that country back into shape. We want to see that happen.”

He harkened back to the US-led war in Iraq, before the start of his political career, and said, “I used to say with Iraq, ‘Keep the oil.’ I could say it here too.”