US president Donald Trump has arrived in The Hague where he will attend a landmark Nato summit on Wednesday.
The gathering is expected to substantially boost military spending in support of Ukraine and as a deterrent against further Russian aggression in Europe.
Mr Trump is expected to be told that Nato member states – with a special exemption for Spain which has been criticised by Mr Trump – have agreed to an increase of 5 per cent of GDP in defence spending.
The two-tier agreement designed by Nato secretary general Mark Rutte commits the alliance to an increase of 3.5 per cent of GDP for military spending combined with an additional increase of 1.5 per cent of GDP for dual-use costs, such as infrastructure and cybersecurity.
Under the new agreement, the increases will come into effect incrementally by 2035 – although countries on Nato’s eastern flank, such as Estonia, insist this lead-in time is too long to prevent further aggression by Moscow.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived earlier on Tuesday for a series of meetings on the margins of the summit – although, because Ukraine is not a Nato member, he will not attend the leaders’ North Atlantic Council meeting on Wednesday to seal the military spending deal.
In a brief comment, he said he expected to meet Mr Trump for talks which remained to be scheduled.
Despite past differences, he praised Mr Trump for continuing to engage with Russian president Vladimir Putin, whose all-out invasion of Ukraine began the war in February 2022.
Mr Zelenskiy’s first meeting was with caretaker Dutch prime minister Dick Schoof – formerly head of the country’s intelligence service – at his official residence a short distance from the summit venue.
At that meeting, Mr Zelenskiy appealed for more European support for Ukraine’s defence industry and heard that the Netherlands has unilaterally allocated another aid package of €175 million for Ukraine, including €80 million for drones and radar equipment.
Afterwards, he addressed a joint session of both houses of the Dutch parliament, where he expressed concerns about Moscow’s links to other “bloody regimes” and called for strict enforcement of sanctions.
As the Nato leaders gathered, Mr Rutte told a public forum he believed there was “total commitment” to Nato on the part of Mr Trump and the US – despite the president’s persistent complaints that Europe and Canada had not been paying enough.
Mr Rutte also insisted that the US decision to strike three nuclear enrichment facilities in Iran over the weekend would not affect Nato’s combined focus on supporting Ukraine.
“Today, Nato’s military edge is being challenged by a rapidly rearming Russia, backed by Chinese technology and armed with Iranian and North Korean weapons,” he warned.
“Only Europe and North America together can rise to meet the challenge of that rearmament.”
However, there was an embarrassing end to the day for Mr Rutte when an apparently private email he sent to President Trump on board Air Force One was retweeted by the president.
Flattering him for his “decisive action in Iran”, Mr Rutte added, “You are flying into another big success in The Hague.”
Mr Trump had been expected to stay with his entourage at a hotel on the North Sea coast. However, in a late change to his schedule, he accepted a rare invitation to overnight at Huis ten Bosch palace, home to King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima and their three daughters.
Mr Trump boarded Air Force One at Andrews air base around lunchtime, landed at Schiphol airport in early evening and travelled directly to the palace for a formal banquet attended by 45 heads of state and government, including Mr Zelenskiy.
