NATO Summit without the Indo-Pacific: Donald Trump’s Administration intensifies tensions with Japan’s Government

From June 24 to 25, 2025, the annual NATO leadership summit took place in The Hague. As a result, Alliance member states agreed to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP over the next 10 years (3.5% for armaments and 1.5% for infrastructure), coordinated further military support for Ukraine, and designated Russia as a long-term threat.

This set of strategic and conceptual decisions is seen as a kind of “grand bargain” between the United States and NATO, paving the way for a new phase of stabilizing security relations in the Euro-Atlantic region.

Despite significant steps in favor of North American and European democracies, the Hague summit marked the first NATO meeting since 2022 without the leadership of the Indo-Pacific Four (IP4) strategic group.