NATO 2025: The War Profiteers Summit

The Hague Summit Declaration issued by NATO Heads of State and Government on 27 June 2025 will go down in history as the Summit which cemented NATO as the most heavily-armed pro-US offensive military alliance in the world, while bankrupting its member countries to enrich weapons and high-tech corporations in the process. The Heads of State made just five points in this year's declaration, which all boiled down to more spending on war, fewer restrictions on the defense industry, and increased austerity and suffering of the people.

According to the Hague Declaration, NATO now requires member countries to spend exponentially more money for war, forcing NATO members to commit 5% of their GDP to "defense and security-related" expenses--more than double the 2% of GDP (or $485 billion combined) agreed to at last year's Summit. The majority of the budget (3.5%) is mandated to be spent on "core defense requirements" which were defined as armed forces, stockpiling of weapons, military operations and missions, research and development, operation of military commands, modernization, and more. The remainder of the budget (1.5%) is to be allocated to infrastructure, "innovation," and strengthening the defense industrial base--essentially investing in civilian infrastructure that can then be used for military purposes in the future. (I think it may be used now, or will be spent now.)

NATO also explicitly stated its support for Ukraine in its budget allocation, justified as spending on collective defense. Support for Ukraine includes the direct supply of arms and aid, as well as investment in Ukraine's defense industry. This was despite months of disputes among member countries about whether to continue sending arms and aid to Ukraine at all, pressured by their citizens to address their skyrocketing cost of living and steep cuts in social services instead of sending more funds to a failed proxy war. In the end, NATO patched up the cracks in the alliance just enough to unite on Russia as their key rival, thus paving the way for Ukrainian aid to continue. NATO members, especially the US, exposed their own self-interest in getting a piece of Ukraine's prolific drone industry, with Trump announcing a possible collaboration between US and Ukrainian drone makers moving forward. This demonstrates how the many proxy wars that NATO drives around the world are not just for achieving immediate military objectives but are used to test deadly new weapons systems for future wars.

The Hague Declaration also announced NATO's intent to eliminate barriers to trade in the defense industry and to promote more defense industrial cooperation. This came as no surprise, given the statements made at the Defense Industry Forum (DIF) attended by Heads of State, defense ministers, and corporate CEOs the day before the NATO Summit. At the DIF, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte mapped out plans to increase air defense five-fold, invest in thousands of more tanks, produce millions more rounds of ammunition, and innovate and harness the potential of space. Rutte declared: we must spend more, to prevent war, we must win this new war of production, That’s what this Summit is all about. Funding for this massive production would come directly from the people of Europe, with the President of the European Commission Ursula Von der Leyen promising to contribute the recent 800 billion euros that the European Union allocated for EU member defense.

​At this year's Summit, NATO members buckled to the dictates of the US, ensuring that the alliance will continue to follow the US down the path of spending more for war instead of for the people; investing in the destructive war industry instead of productive pro-people industries; and selling the lie that security can be attained through military strength. As long as NATO exists, the conditions for a just peace can never develop. The only solution is for the people to resist NATO and fight for a just and lasting peace until it is achieved!