US President Donald Trump on Wednesday met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the NATO summit in The Hague, the Ukrainian presidency said.
What Zelenskyy said after meeting Trump
“I had a long and substantive meeting with President Trump. We covered all the truly important issues. I thank President, I thank the United States. We discussed how to achieve a ceasefire and a real peace. We spoke about how to protect our people. We appreciate the attention and the readiness to help bring peace closer. Details will follow,” Zelenskyy said on X.
Trump says he will talk to Putin on Ukraine war
Trump after meeting with Zelenskyy, said, "We had some hard times, but he was very nice. He couldn't have been any nicer than he was. I was happy to see him. It was a great meeting. I think this is a great time to end the war. Maybe I will talk to President Putin to end the war."
When Trump was asked at a press briefing in The Hague about what he planned to discuss in his upcoming meeting with Zelenskyy, he said, “Obviously, we’ll be discussing his difficulties — he’s got a little difficulty."
“Zelenskyy’s a nice guy. I’m meeting him today. I don’t know, I assume we’re going to be discussing Ukraine. That seems the most likely," he added.
This is the second meeting this year after Trump met him at the White House in February this year.
Trump calls PM Modi a great friend
Trump talked about India-Pakistan conflict and said, “The most important of all, India and Pakistan...I ended that with a series of phone calls on trade. I said if you're going to go fighting each other, we're not doing any trade deal. The General from Pakistan was in my office last week. Prime Minister Modi is a great friend of mine. He's a great gentleman, he's a great man. I got them to reason, and I said, we're not doing a trade deal if you're going to fight. They said, no, I want to do the trade deal. We stopped the nuclear war..."
NATO leaders agree on massive hike in defence spending
Earlier in the day, the NATO leaders agreed on a massive hike in defence spending after pressure from US President Donald Trump, and expressed their “ironclad commitment” to come to each other's aid if attacked.
The 32 leaders endorsed a final summit statement saying: “Allies commit to invest 5 per cent of GDP annually on core defence requirements as well as defence- and security-related spending by 2035 to ensure our individual and collective obligations.”
Spain had already officially announced that it cannot meet the target, and others have voiced reservations, but the investment pledge includes a review of spending in 2029 to monitor progress and reassess the security threat posed by Russia.
The leaders also underlined their “ironclad commitment” to NATO's collective security guarantee – “that an attack on one is an attack on all.” Ahead of the summit, Trump had again raised doubts over whether the United States would defend its allies.
The show of unity vindicated NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte's billing of the summit as “transformational,” even though it papered over divisions. The spending pledge sets European allies and Canada on a steep path toward significant military investment.
The spending hike requires each countries to spend billions of dollars. It comes as the United States — NATO's biggest-spending member — shifts its attention away from Europe to focus on security priorities elsewhere, notably in the Middle East and Indo-Pacific.
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