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Leaders from the Bucharest Nine, the Baltic states, and the five Nordic countries are gathering in Vilnius today to coordinate a unified stance ahead of NATO’s June 24–25 summit in The Hague.
Hosted by Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda at the Palace of the Grand Dukes, the summit brings together leaders from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and the Bucharest Nine group, which includes Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are attending as guests.
Discussions at the Vilnius Summit will focus on preparations for the NATO Summit to be held in The Hague on 24–25 June. Items on the agenda will include increasing NATO members’ defence spending, supporting Ukraine on its path towards a just and lasting peace and deepening Euro-Atlantic security cooperation.
“Russia’s ongoing unlawful war of aggression in Ukraine is seriously weakening the security situation in Europe. Support for Ukraine also supports Euro-Atlantic security as a whole. At the same time, we have to understand that Russia will continue to be a major threat to Europe going forward. The best way we can support Ukraine and European security is by making a strong commitment to raising the level of defence spending and increasing defence industry capacity at the upcoming NATO Summit in The Hague,” said Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo attendng the gathering.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Monday that he assumes alliance members will agree to a broad defence spending target of 5% of gross domestic product during a summit in The Hague next month.
"I assume that in The Hague we will agree on a high defence spend target of in total 5%," Rutte said at a meeting of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Dayton.
"Let's say that this 5%, but I will not say what is the individual breakup, but it will be considerably north of 3% when it comes to the hard spend, and it will be also a target on defence-related spending," he added.
Reuters reported earlier this month that Rutte had proposed NATO members raise defence spending to 3.5% of their GDP, and a further 1.5% on broader security-related items to meet U.S. President Donald Trump's demand for a 5% target.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said earlier this month that "Rutte has sent a letter to all NATO members to say that he expects that the commitment at the NATO summit will be 3.5% on hard military spending, to be reached in 2032, and 1.5% on related spending such as on infrastructure, cyber security, and similar things also to be reached by 2032".
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 13 September with no tsunami threat, coming just weeks after the region endured a devastating 8.8-magnitude quake — the strongest since 1952.
Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief: here are the top news stories for the 9th of October, covering the latest developments you need to know.
Russia’s central bank has ruled the state violated minority shareholders’ rights in seized assets, signalling rare pushback against nationalisation.
A newly elected German mayor survived multiple stab wounds in a family attack.
Cristiano Ronaldo has become football’s first billionaire player, according to Bloomberg, which tracks the world’s richest individuals.
Germany has ended its fast-track citizenship programme, reflecting a shift in public attitudes toward migration and integration.
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