On June 26, 2025, the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs (HIIA) held a roundtable discussion titled, “Hague NATO summit debrief – First-hand analysis of the decisions” . The panelists included Péter Sztáray, State Secretary for Security Policy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, Márton Bese, Head of the Defense Policy Division at the Permanent Representation of Hungary to NATO and Péter Stepper, Associate Professor at the National University of Public Service. The discussion was moderated by HIIA Senior Research Fellow Péter Pál Siklósi.
Experts were quick to point out that the NATO summit held in The Hague on June 24–25 was made even more important by the fact that it was the alliance’s first summit since Donald Trump’s re-election. Péter Sztáray described the recent NATO summit as an extremely specific meeting. In his view, a change of concept took place, with a new strategy emerging in relation to the Russian-Ukrainian war. Márton Bese explained that the development of military capabilities had become the main focus and that Trump had proved to be a decisive factor at the meeting.
All NATO member states have accepted the need to increase defense spending in order to develop not only military capabilities but also resilience itself. According to Péter Stepper, the extent of the increase in defense spending was not surprising overall, given Donald Trump’s policy on European self-defense. Of the 5% mentioned, 3.5% must be spent on strictly defined military spending, while the remaining 1.5% can be spent by member states on other security and defense-related expenditures, such as transport infrastructure development. Péter Sztáray pointed out that the increase in defense spending to 5% can primarily be seen as a political statement. In the ten years leading up to the current NATO summit, several European NATO member states did not even reach the previously mandatory threshold of 2%. The current significant increase was also necessary in order to appear in a better light in the eyes of the US. Márton Bese added that for Trump, this increase is primarily a measure of trust in European member states. This is also evident from the fact that a review will take place in 2029, during which the introduction of the acquired capabilities will be examined and the changed environment will be reflected upon. Péter Stepper pointed out that it is also necessary to assess capabilities because more than half of the member states’ budgets to date have been consumed by bureaucratic structures.
All experts agreed that the current NATO summit can be considered a success for both the US and Europe. Péter Sztáray also pointed out that, compared to the 2022 NATO summit in Madrid, Ukraine has almost completely disappeared from the agenda, but at the same time, the summit cannot be considered a loss for the Eastern European country, as support for it continues.