NATO’s Hague summit wrapped up Wednesday with leaders adopting a brief declaration that reaffirms “iron clad commitment to collective defence as enshrined in Article 5” and sets a new defence spending target of 5 per cent by 2035. The gathering was notable for who was not in the room. Japan’s Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru and South Korea’s new President Lee Jae-myung both cancelled at the last minute, forcing the planned photo-op and strategy session with NATO Secretary-General, U.S. President Donald Trump, and the AP4 leaders—Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea—to be dropped. Japan instead dispatched Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, who reiterated Tokyo’s intent to deepen NATO-Indo-Pacific co-ordination, but the lack of top-level representation was a missed chance to advance the fast-growing web of European security partnerships with Indo-Pacific players such as Japan, Australia and South Korea.
The summit itself was markedly slimmed down—one 2.5-hour working session—and dominated by Washington’s push for allies to meet the new five-per-cent GDP spending on defence. In the run-up to the Summit on Monday, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stressed that despite the absence of most AP4 leaders (New Zealand’s Prime Minister was the only one to attend) NATO remains “in very close touch” with its Indo-Pacific partners, calling the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific theatres “closely connected.” He also warned that Beijing’s “massive” military build-up, Moscow’s alignment with Pyongyang and Tehran, and North Korean support for Russia’s war effort together make Ukraine a matter concerning the whole world, not just a regional fight.
On the margins of the summit, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met with his counterpart from New Zealand to discuss “strengthening collaboration between the NATO alliance and its Indo-Pacific partners” and to deepen bilateral engagement through Canada’s new defence procurement strategy and New Zealand’s Defence Capability Plan.
Canada–EU defence accord
On the eve of the summit, Ottawa and Brussels signed a new defence and security partnership, pledging closer work on maritime security, cyber and hybrid threats, defence industrial co-operation, space policy, and continued support for Ukraine. The EU has signed similar agreements with the U.K. and South Korea.
