What Could Go Wrong as Trump Heads to NATO
Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.
NATO was preparing to offer Donald Trump a military-spending target of 5% of GDP on a silver platter. That’s until Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez rejected the spending plan, threatening to derail a NATO summit that Secretary General Mark Rutte needs to run smoothly — with the military alliance’s survival potentially at stake. As the gathering starts in The Hague today, Rutte needs to keep Spain in line while preventing others, like Slovakia, from breaking ranks. Everybody will be bracing for Trump’s reaction, even as a pause appears to be on hand in the Middle East after the US president announced a ceasefire in the 12-day war between Iran and Israel.