27 back ‘rearmament’ plan, NATO secretary general trusts Trump, Orbán reiterates backing for peace
The 27 agreed Thursday to move forward on a major rearmament plan and embraced at a Brussels summit the EU executive’s proposals to mobilize up to 800 billion euros for military spending at a time when Donald Trump is negotiating with Ukraine to end the war with Russia.
“We all need to work together to achieve this and also meet the additional requirements we have in relation to our common defense,” asserted acting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The meeting in Brussels was also attended by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who is more optimistic that Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenski will resolve the crisis after last Friday’s clash in the Oval Office and that Washington will maintain its support for Kiev. According to the Dutchman, military support to Ukraine “has to continue”. “I very much welcome the fact that the United States and Ukraine, as we speak, are discussing how to move forward on this issue and how to resolve some of the existing difficulties,” he said.
Thus, Rutte was “cautiously optimistic” that the talks between Ukraine and the United States will lead “to good results” and that “things can move forward positively.”
For his part, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán insisted that Hungary stands on the side of a coalition of countries supporting peace led by Donald Trump’s United States. “We have always said that there should be peace because the Hungarian economy cannot withstand war,” he said in a radio interview.
