NATO countries' pledge to spend 5% of their economic output on defense is Donald Trump's "greatest foreign policy success," the alliance's chief said.
In an interview with the BBC, Mark Rutte emphasized that it was thanks to Donald Trump that NATO was "stronger than ever," adding that Trump "is good news for collective defense, for NATO and for Ukraine," reports the Telegraph.
The American leader has sharply criticized European allies for spending too little on defense - even threatening to withdraw US defense if they do not.
In addition, the NATO chief has warned that Russia could attack allies within the next five years.
Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed such talk as "hysteria" on Wednesday.
"I have said it repeatedly - it is a lie, an absurdity, pure absurdity, about an imaginary Russian threat to European countries," Putin told defense officials in Moscow.
After Putin launched Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Russia had already annexed Crimea in 2014.
It now occupies most of Luhansk and is understood to be demanding Ukraine's withdrawal from all of Donetsk, even though Ukraine still controls up to 23% of the eastern region.
Putin said the goals of what he called the “special military operation” would be achieved. He said he preferred to do so through diplomacy, before warning that “if the opposing side and their foreign patrons refuse to engage in substantive discussions, Russia will achieve the liberation of its historical lands by military means.” /Telegrafi/
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