Trump, EU still at odds over Putin's ambitions after Nato summit

For US President Donald Trump, Mr Vladimir Putin is a man looking for an off-ramp to his bloody three-year assault on Ukraine.

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THE HAGUE - For US President Donald Trump, Mr Vladimir Putin is a man looking for an off-ramp to his bloody three-year assault on Ukraine.

But according to Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte, the Russian leader may be just getting started. If the alliance does not invest in its defence capabilities, Mr Rutte warned at the annual Nato summit on June 25, Russia could attack an alliance country within three years.

By most measures, 2025's Nato summit in The Hague was a success.

Member states largely agreed to a US demand to boost defence spending to 5 per cent of gross domestic product. Mr Trump, who once derided the alliance as a "rip-off", said his view had changed, while a budding bromance blossomed between him and Mr Rutte, who compared the US President to a stern "daddy" managing his geopolitical underlings.

But the summit, which ended on June 25, also highlighted the widening gap between how the US and Europe see the military ambitions of Russia, the bloc's main foil.

That is despite some lawmakers in Mr Trump's own Republican Party hardening their rhetoric in recent weeks, arguing that while the President's ambition to negotiate an end to Russia's war in Ukraine is laudable, it is now clear that Mr Putin is not serious about coming to the table.

In a June 25 press conference, Mr Trump conceded that it was "possible" Mr Putin had territorial ambitions beyond Ukraine. But he insisted that the Russian leader, buffeted by manpower and material losses, wanted the war to end quickly.