Lower thirds:

0:16 Pete Hegseth / US Defense Secretary
0:32 Mark Rutte / NATO Secretary General 
1:05 Teri Schultz / DW Correspondent
1:53 Margarita Robles / Spanish Defense Minister
2:09 Pete Hegseth / US Defense Secretary 
 
Script:

Despite some last-minute haggling ahead of the Hague summit, there's little doubt NATO governments will agree to spend 5% of their GDP on defense…
 
A long-standing demand of U-S President Donald Trump, hand-carried to NATO by his defense secretary.
 
SOT: Pete Hegseth, US Defense Secretary
"5% is our message and we will deliver that. President Trump at the Hague at the summit."
 
NATO chief Mark Rutte has maintained in the face of many questions that this spending surge is not just to keep Trump happy.
 
SOT: Mark Rutte, NATO Secretary General
"we don't have to do this because of an audience of one. We have to this to keep one billion people safe."
 
Rutte insists the figure comes instead from what allies need to spend on their own capabilities to fulfill NATO's overall defense plan to deter Russia.
 
Here's the formula he's floated:
Governments would allocate 3.5% of their budgets to traditional defense needs. The other 1.5% would come from expenditures such as
cyber-security, infrastructure upgrades to improve military mobility, assistance to Ukraine and other categories still under discussion.
 
PTC: Teri Schultz, NATO HQ
But the math is bound to be messy and the secretary general refused to be specific about how countries would be allowed to categorize their spending. For example, some allies currently count military assistance to Ukraine as part of their own core defense investment. Others say helping Ukraine is good for NATO but that money belongs in this other basket of 1.5% defense related spending.
 
But NATO's last official tally in 2024 shows several countries still below the previous target amount of 2% of GDP, set in 2014.
Of those, Spain has been the most vocal in opposing the leap to 5% even though Madrid has approved its share of new NATO armament obligations that will require a lot of additional spending.
 
SOT: Margarita Robles, Spanish Defense Minister
"we think we are able to accomplish these capability targets for Spain with 2% of GDP."
 
But it seems the Trump Administration has already chalked up a win in the Hague and is turning its attention to the spending habits of Asian partners…
 
SOT: Pete Hegseth, US Defense Secretary
"NATO members are pledging to spend five percent of their GDP on defense, even Germany. So it doesn't make sense for countries in Europe to do that while key allies in Asia spend less on defense in the face of an even more formidable threat."
 
A preview of Trump's promised pivot to Asia, one of NATO's next challenges.