Watch live: Europe Today - NATO Summit special edition day 2

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Good morning.

It is Wednesday, the 25th of June.

It's a fast-moving morning with multiple developments.

And I'm Maeve McMahon, and you're watching Europe Today.

That's Euronews' morning show that zooms in on the 76th NATO summit, gathering 32 NATO heads of state plus President Zelensky of Ukraine today in The Hague.

Now, all eyes were on the U.S. President Donald Trump, who arrived last night initially with a pep in his step, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that he was committed to his, quote, European friends.

But the ongoing escalation in the Middle East and the fragile ceasefire announced yesterday are overshadowing these talks.

Here's President Trump not mincing his words.

I'm not happy with Israel.

You know, when I say, OK, now you have 12 hours, you don't go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them.

So I'm not happy with them.

We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the fuck they're doing.

Do you understand that?

President Donald Trump there livid that what he had coined the 12 day war is not over in the quote spectacular way that he had hoped.

Souring his mood is also the news from the Pentagon that the US strikes last weekend did not completely destroy Iran's nuclear sites.

This could also impact Russia's ongoing war on Ukraine, as neither wars have a realistic U.S. focus.

Now here at Euronews, our journalists are following all developments, trying to keep up with the fast-paced news.

Shortly, we'll be heading over to The Hague for an update.

But first, let's just check in with Euronews' Marit Gwynn-Schones in our newsroom to hear the main headlines of the morning.

Good morning from the Euronews newsroom, Maeve.

And overnight, those reports reaching us of that leaked U.S. intelligence assessment saying that the U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities over the weekend did not destroy the Iranian nuclear program.

And perhaps wasn't the spectacular success that Trump and also Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have claimed them

to be.

So that's certainly casting doubts over the Trump statement that the nuclear program has been obliterated.

Also, our teams here following developments from the Middle East overnight and no reported military action between Iran and Israel.

That's for the first time since this conflict broke out 12 days ago, Maeve, suggesting that that ceasefire that was so fragile yesterday is now holding.

some slightly good news there let's see if it does indeed hold married gwynne jones thank you so much for that live update and now let's go straight to the hague where the action is today and speak to your news correspondent shona murray who's covering this summit for us good morning shona good to have you with us just first bring us up to speed there was the big dinner last night what's being said on the record and of course off

Well, good morning, Maeve.

Indeed, Donald Trump did attend that dinner at the palace hosted by the King and Queen of the Netherlands alongside all 32 NATO allies, including President Zelensky.

Now, the Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister told me yesterday it was really at the Dutch behest that President Zelensky would be invited to that dinner last night.

And, of course, Donald Trump attending because even up until a few hours before he left Washington yesterday, there was questions over whether Donald Trump would arrive here at The Hague, particularly given what was happening between Iran and...

And in Israel.

But one thing that may have cast a pall over discussions or at least the mood last night was one thing he said on Air Force One.

He said he was sort of not exactly committed to Article 5 of NATO.

Well, he's cast out at least.

He said he'd explain exactly what that means when he gets here.

But indeed, that is the backbone of NATO.

Article 5 is an attack on one.

is an attack on all.

So we'll hear probably a lot more about that this afternoon.

Maeve?

And this summit, Shona, seems to have been created to satisfy Donald Trump.

Is that the case?

Maeve, I can say that I think NATO is really bending over backwards to support Donald Trump and to ensure that his interests are very clear when it comes to NATO, where America's first interests are part of the NATO alliance.

If you look at the summit, it's shorter.

If you look at the meeting today between all NATO allies, it's around two and a half hours long.

The statement afterwards will be five paragraphs long.

Normally, these run into several pages.

And key thing, Maeve, is that the main narrow focus of this summit is Donald Trump's demand that NATO allies commit to 5% spending on defense, something that was probably something they would never even consider years ago, given that 2% is the limit at the moment.

Maeve?

Indeed.

And meanwhile, grabbing a lot of headlines there, that private text message that President Trump leaked.

Tell us more about that and reactions to it.

That's right.

Mark Rutte, the Secretary General of NATO, sent a message to Donald Trump yesterday congratulating him on his decisive action in Iran, something that was truly extraordinary, something no one else would ever dare to do.

He also congratulated him for pushing NATO allies to spend 5% of defence, something that any other American president could never do.

It was an extremely obsequious message, quite effusive.

And then afterwards, we also heard of that leaked intelligence report

saying that maybe the strikes weren't as decisive as Donald Trump made out to be.

So there is sort of a little bit of sort of questioning over how effusive this message was from Secretary General Rutte.

But yesterday I caught up with Kaia Callis, the EU's foreign policy chief, and I asked her about the substance and the tone of this messaging by Rutte.

Mark Rutte is speaking Trump.

I think, you know, he's speaking the language that President Trump definitely understands, and he needs to get this across.

I think it's very important that everybody is doing this 5% and agreeing to this.

President Trump has been the one who has been calling for this for quite some time, that everybody should agree

do more for their own defence and Europe is stepping up.

We definitely have listened to President Trump and everybody is doing more.

Are you concerned about the contrast between this NATO summit and the one last year?

In Ukraine, really, the issue of the war there was front and centre.

This year, it's quite notable by its absence.

Well, every NATO summit is different.

I think when member states agree to spend more on defense, that also means that they have more means to help Ukraine.

And when it comes to Europe, we have agreed that we will support Ukraine militarily and we will also put more pressure on Russia so that they would also want peace in order to end this war.

So it is very clear for us.

There's also the perspective really from the United States, which is saying that NATO security isn't interlinked with Ukrainian security, whereas of course, from a European perspective, it's completely inextricable.

The security of all the regions in the world is very much interlinked.

If you look at North Korean soldiers being already active in Ukraine, when you look at the support that Iran is giving to Russia, when you look at the sanctions circumvention that some countries are doing, and you have different security theatres in the world.

Clearly, this is all very much connected.

So if we don't push back aggression in one place, then it just is a call to use aggression elsewhere.

I mean, obviously, we have this moment so much where all allies are going to agree to spend 5% of GDP on defense.

But are you concerned maybe that they will agree to the 5%, but that may not materialize?

Well, Mark Rutte, I really commend his work on this, because last time when we had the pledge in 2014, it was for 2024, but there wasn't really a clear path how to get there.

Now we have milestones on the way to check whether everybody is in the right trajectory.

And when it comes to defence spending, it's also very much defined what goes into that.

I think it is important that in these very turbulent times, we need to invest more in defence and we need to do it all collectively.

And then Spain and Slovakia saying they won't be able to agree to this 5% target.

What do you think that division looks like to Putin?

Well, I don't see into Putin's mind, but looking back how he has been working, he understands strength.

If we invest more into defense, we are stronger.

So it doesn't provoke him.

Weakness provokes him.

If he thinks that he's stronger, he can take up this war, then he will take up war.

But if he sees that we are stronger,

strong then he doesn't look our way which is what we are doing but to countries who are not committed to spending the five percent when everybody else is what would you say to them

I have called to look at the map of Europe, which is, I mean, if you compare it to the whole world, the European continent is quite small.

Whatever happens in one place has also an effect, you know, to the whole of Europe.

And it is, you know, shouldering more responsibility.

Every member state has different issues and also different public opinions.

I understand that.

But we are in this together.

And that was EU Foreign Affairs Chief Kaya Callas speaking to our Shona Murray in The Hague.

We'll be on the handshakes and the photo ops there.

The big headline, as you heard there from this summit, is leaders pledging this 5% of their GDP on defence.

But if you take a closer look at the small print, the deadline to reach the target is actually 2035.

So we could see many leaders just kick the can down the road.

Alessio Delane takes a closer look.

After months of pressure from US President Donald Trump, NATO leaders in The Hague are prepared to agree on raising military spending to 5% of GDP.

But what does that 5% consist of?

The biggest chunk, 3.5%, would be devoted to military hardware, tanks, jets, drones, soldiers, plus tons of new artillery ammunition.

What about the remaining 1.5%?

NATO calls it defense and security related investments.

In other words, civilian and IT infrastructure designed to enhance and support military operations.

For example, bridges, roads, ports, as well as cyber security and energy pipeline protection.

However, experts, including the Bertelsmann Stiftung Foundation, argue that this part of the budget is vague and open to national interpretations.

The devil is indeed in the details.

A NATO letter sent to the Spanish Prime Minister on Sunday seems to suggest that the 5% threshold might not be binding.

Spain, for example, will have the flexibility to determine its own path for reaching the capability targets set by NATO.

with more countries possibly advancing the same requests.

How united can the Alliance really be in its defence strategy while facing unprecedented threats?

Alessio Delano reporting there on the small print of this agreement.

Well, as you're hearing as well, NATO allies are divided on how far to go when it comes to defence spending, with Spain, for example, geographically very far from Ukraine, dragging their feet.

Well, for their views, we had the chance to speak to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia and also the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium here.

Take a look.

Indeed, Estonia this year is already investing 3.8%.

From the next year will increase up to 5.4%.

And it is not because of President Trump has put us under pressure.

But actually, two years ago in the summit of the Vilnius, we agreed actually the new regional defense plans.

And we need to fulfill these caps as soon as possible.

But of course, we would have been expecting these kind of decisions already 10 years ago when Russia started aggression against Ukraine.

But now I'm pretty happy that we are going to do it anyways.

And GDP is an honest figure for everyone.

If Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland can do 5%, then the other countries can do the same.

Objectively speaking, given its budgetary situation, Belgium does not currently have the leisure to be able to reach 3.5% of pure military investments, let alone 5% overall, in a short or medium term.

But we want to remain a reliable partner.

We know that the very founding principle of the alliance is solidarity.

And so after having been a bad student in the class for a long time, we want to say Belgium is back with an investment effort that will actually increase, but at a pace that will have to remain sustainable for our finances, otherwise at the risk of having a major break in social cohesion, which would not be good for anyone.

It would be to make way for extremist formations, as we see elsewhere in Europe, and so we will be meeting again, but using flexibility mechanisms that we want to advocate for as much as possible so that the effort is sustainable.

And for more in-depth news on that story and the Hague summit taking place today, do keep an eye on euronews.com and our live blogs.

And join us again tomorrow.

We'll be back here live, bringing you up to speed on the much-anticipated EU summit here in Brussels.

Thanks for watching.

See you soon on Euronews.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that his country's 12-day campaign on Iran eliminated a wide array of threats that pose a grave risk to Israel's survival.

The Israeli attacks, dubbed Operation Rising Lion, sought to destroy Iranian nuclear sites and disrupt its rapidly advancing nuclear program.

We will act with the same determination, with the same strength, to overcome any such attempt.

I stand and say, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon."

Trump aboard Air Force One en route to the NATO Summit in The Hague also echoed a similar sentiment.

The U.S. President noted that the ceasefire remained solid as he resolutely ruled out any chance of Tehran possessing nuclear warheads.

A U.S. intelligence report released on Tuesday, however, suggested that U.S. strikes on Iran only set back its program by a few short months.

A report released by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's intelligence arm, detailed that most of the damage dealt to Iranian nuclear sites was limited to above-ground structures.

The report also asserted that Iran's centrifuges, used to enrich uranium, appear to be largely intact.

It's a stark contrast from Trump's Saturday night remarks where he stated that Washington had completely obliterated Iran's nuclear program.

The White House slammed the report as a, quote, clear attempt to demean Trump.

White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt called the report flat-out wrong, adding that everyone knows what happens when you drop 14 30,000-pound bombs.

102 French citizens were evacuated from Israel on Tuesday aboard a French military aircraft.

The passengers arrived in the Cypriot city of Larnaca where they're spending the night before being flown out to the French capital, Paris, on Wednesday.

Some of the passengers had been stranded in Israel for more than two weeks after the Israel-Iran war unexpectedly broke out.

The French ambassador to Cyprus added that more French evacuees are set to arrive in Cyprus on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Indonesia says it has successfully evacuated 96 of its nationals from Iran.

The foreign ministry says 93 civilians and three embassy staff left the country through land routes via Azerbaijan.

Eleven Indonesians arrived in the capital Jakarta on a Turkish Airlines flight on Tuesday night.

Twenty-nine others are expected to arrive on Wednesday aboard three flights from Azerbaijan.

Jakarta says 386 Indonesian citizens reside in Iran, many of them students, and all of whom it plans to evacuate in the coming days.

Evacuations from Iran became increasingly challenging after multiple planned flights were canceled following the closure of Qatari airspace.

At least 25 people were killed after Israeli troops fired at a crowd of Palestinians waiting for aid trucks in central Gaza on Tuesday.

The United Nations Rights Office has criticized the Israeli army and said the weaponization of food in the strip constitutes a war crime.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA also spoke out on Tuesday.

They called the aid mechanism a death trap.

The newly created so-called

The aid mechanism is an abomination that humiliates and degrades desperate people.

It is a death trap costing more lives than it saves.

Humanitarian principles need to be reinstated.

At least 410 people have been killed at aid distribution sites since the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operating at the end of May.

That is according to a report by the United Nations Rights Office.

Israeli forces have repeatedly been accused of opening fire at crowds in desperate need of food.

Israel's military claims it fired warning shots at people who they consider to have approached its forces in a quote suspicious manner.

The UN rights office called for an urgent and impartial investigation into each of the killings and urged Israel to allow the entry of food and aid into the strip.

U.S. President Donald Trump arrived at the Royal Palace in The Hague, where he will be staying for the NATO summit.

He was warmly welcomed by the Netherlands King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima as they convened with other NATO leaders for a dinner.

Speaking at the dinner, the Dutch monarch urged Trump to continue standing by Ukraine, reminding him of the grave threat Russia poses to NATO.