NATO Heads to a Summit Strained by Trump and a Widening Security Gap

The secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Mark Rutte, is traveling to Washington to manage a difficult relationship with President Donald Trump, according to The New York Times. The newspaper reported that his accommodating manner has at times frustrated the European leaders who rely on him to keep the alliance united.

The summit comes as Europe confronts the limits of its own military. Deutsche Welle reported that experts consider the current European system of defense production and procurement inadequate for the scale of rearmament that governments have promised, even as the United States speeds up the withdrawal of its forces from the continent.

In Moscow, the deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko warned that the risk of a military collision between Russia and NATO is increasing, according to Russian state media. The Kremlin separately argued, through its spokesman Dmitry Peskov, that the United States economy is being militarized, TASS reported, citing a planned meeting between Trump and major weapons manufacturers. Each government presents the other's military posture as the cause of escalation.

The combination of American withdrawal and limited European capacity is forcing a structural change. European states face years of higher defense spending and industrial expansion, a fiscal burden that competes with social commitments at a time of slow growth.