I'm John Batchel with my colleague Gregory Copley of Defense and Foreign Affairs.

NATO, the Hague.

NATO Secretary General Mark Routy has praised Donald Trump for making Europe, quote,

pay in a big way, big as all capital letters, end quote,

on increased defense spending and a private message that

the U.S. President shared on a social media platform.

The quote, Donald, you have driven us to a really, really important moment for America and Europe

and the world.

What we're looking at here is the question of raising the contribution of the 32 members of NATO.

From 2%, many did not meet it, to 3.5% for arms immediately, and 1.5% more over

time for cyber and space. In other words, the new technologies, N AI. Five percent. Spain has asked for a waiver.

Britain wants to contribute, however, it has budget problems. Mertz and Macron, however, are keen on

the idea in writing on the Financial Times in these last hours. They're saying, you must arm itself

in an unstable world. So, Gregory, NATO looks to

be reviving itself in the presence of the United States by saying we're ready to pay. Do we believe it?

No. Short term answer, short answer. Really, nobody has bothered to ask the question of what is NATO for now that the

Soviet Union has collapsed. What we've seen in these great attempts in recent years to revive the

image of Russia as though it were the Soviet Union and that it was on the offensive,

ideologically and militarily.

And in reality, what we see is the modern Russian state, anti-communist, post-Soviet,

trying to control its near abroad, much of which included the former Russian Empire, including, by the way, that included all of Ukraine

for that matter. So the reality is that, no, we don't see that enemy there anymore. The question

...