The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the world's largest military alliance with a 75-year history, is facing a series of unexpected situations such as the absence of key leaders, withdrawal from the alliance, and agenda changes ahead of this year's summit.
According to Reuters and others on the 22nd (local time), the atmosphere and agenda for the NATO 2025 summit, scheduled to be held in The Hague, Netherlands, starting on the 24th, have completely changed ahead of the opening.
Initially, the core agenda was defense expenditure. NATO planned to address the proposed 5% increase in defense spending championed by U.S. President Donald Trump and the response to the prolonged Russia-Ukraine war as key items.
NATO member countries expressed dissatisfaction with the unpredictable actions of the United States, yet they tried to placate each other while extinguishing the immediate fire.
However, on the 22nd, the Middle East situation changed abruptly when the United States directly struck Iranian nuclear facilities. NATO, already burdened with the cumbersome issue of the Russia-Ukraine war, found a new tinderbox in the Middle East.
NATO is originally a collective defense organization established in 1949 to prevent the Soviet invasion of Western Europe. It protects an area with a population of 750 million from 32 countries and an economy worth $40 trillion (approximately 5,500 trillion won).
Born to counter the Soviet Union during the Cold War, NATO lost its identity and wandered after the Cold War ended. While the number of member countries has increased, it has become difficult to speak with one voice as the interests of each country have become more intertwined.
In addition, the Trump administration, which emerged last year advocating for America First, shattered the trust that underpins military alliances.
Signs of a rift between NATO member states were detected even before the airstrikes on Iran.
Spain publicly claimed that the proposal to spend 5% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defense expenditure was "irrational" and advocated for "withdrawal from the agreement."
Spain is the country geographically furthest from Russia and the European continent. Last year, its defense expenditure was 1.28% of GDP, the lowest among the 32 NATO countries.
Pedro Sánchez, the Prime Minister of Spain, insisted that NATO "absolutely cannot spend more than 2.1% of GDP on defense expenditure."
Ultimately, NATO endured the humiliation of providing Spain with some exemptions from defense expenditure. U.S. President Donald Trump referred to Spain as a "notorious low-spending country," publicly humiliating its leaders.
President Trump, who should have been the focal point of the meeting, shortened his schedule for the NATO summit.
Trump is reportedly only attending the meeting for one day on the 25th and will leave the Netherlands. The visit seems to hold more political significance than coordinating alliance issues. Trump had also left early during the G7 summit in Canada held on the 17th.
In line with Trump's short visit schedule, NATO condensed its key discussion points into a single 2.5-hour session on the 25th. South Korea, Australia, and Japan, which were scheduled to meet with Trump, all postponed their attendance as their schedules became uncertain.
In this process, the issue of Ukraine, which was another core agenda item for NATO, was pushed to the back.
According to the U.S. political media Politico, the war participant, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, was only invited to the dinner the evening of the summit's opening day. He will not be seated at the main conference table on the 25th.
There will not be a working-level meeting between NATO and the Ukrainian council. Mention of Ukraine's NATO membership agenda and future war support measures is expected to be excluded from the final joint statement of this meeting.
In the diplomatic community, this is interpreted as a "last-ditch effort to avoid a situation that would be uncomfortable for both Trump and Zelensky."
Instead, it is projected that NATO will only categorize Russia as a "direct threat," according to Politico.