Luxon departs NATO summit after meeting with Ukraine's Zelensky

The prime minister said his two days' attendance at the NATO summit was worthwhile for New Zealand, calling the alliance an important partner and praising commitments to defence spending and supporting Ukraine.

At the summit in The Hague, the alliance's 32 European and North American countries agreed to increase their defence spending to 5 percent of GDP within a decade.

Participants also agreed to an "ironclad commitment to collective defence as enshrined in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty - that an attack on one is an attack on all", easing European fears that US President Donald Trump was wavering on that commitment.

The final communique followed days of lavish praise from NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, in the hope Trump - who had been sceptical of the alliance - would not derail the summit.

At a news conference on Wednesday morning (local time), Rutte went as far as saying "sometimes Daddy needs to use strong language," when asked about Trump's expletive-laden quip at Israel and Iran on Tuesday.

But the deference seemed to work. After the summit, Trump confirmed his support for the alliance.

"I left here differently," he told a news conference. "I left here saying that these people really love their countries, it's not a rip-off and we're here to help them protect their country."

New Zealand is not a NATO member, so while the alliance's leaders were meeting in an auditorium in The Hague, Luxon was meeting with other partners including the EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and Australian deputy prime minister Richard Marles.

He then held a bilateral meeting with Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelensky.

"I think he's feeling incredibly supported," Luxon said after the meeting. "I think, you know, this is a big win for Ukraine as well. Because clearly there'll be a big investment here that's been committed to, and a significant amount of that money will go into Ukraine ultimately."

There had been concern that support for Ukraine could be diluted compared to previous NATO summits, particularly with Trump's past antipathy towards Zelensky.

But the final communique included a line promising further support to Ukraine, noting that its "security contributes to ours".

However, it stopped short of directly condemning Russia.

PM meets with IP4 allies

After that meeting, Rutte met with Luxon, Marles and the foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea for a gathering of a grouping that's been dubbed the Indo-Pacific 4, or IP4.

"We have that relationship and the Pacific countries … not because we want to extend NATO to the Indo-Pacific, but because we have friends in the Indo-Pacific," he said.

"There is a lot of use and importance in making joint analysis of the security threats facing us here, and what is happening in the Indo-Pacific knowing that these two areas, these two theatres, are getting more interconnected."

Luxon said that collaboration could ultimately make things more cost-effective for New Zealand.

"As we go through our asset upgrades and our defence capability being built out, there's a real need for us to plug into some of those procurement exercises as well so we can get more value for the money that we're spending," he said. "I think there's huge opportunities in that."

The prime minister has spent two days walking the corridors and halls of this venue which has taken over half the centre of The Hague, with helicopters circling above and snipers perched on rooftops.

He held formal meetings with 11 leaders - including breakfast with the new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney - and had brief interactions with many more on the sidelines or at a state dinner at the Dutch King's palace on Tuesday.

'Historic' NATO meeting

"It's been a pretty historic NATO in the regard of a commitment to spending, which has been really important," Luxon said."

Throughout, Luxon has tried to stress that any pressure that had been placed upon NATO members to increase defence spending did not apply to New Zealand.

The prime minister said the fact everyone had increased their spending underscored the "existential threat to democracy" posed by the war in Ukraine.

"There's a crisis unifying this region very, very quickly. That has focused the minds and actually made all the countries come together to make this commitment, which is no mean feat."

He described the countries as having mature MMP environments with multi-party coaltions, and being a coalition themselves as a NATO block.

"To be able to pull all that together, to focus, to get to the outcome and the commitment in place, is really important."

Luxon said the war in Ukraine came up in every conversation he had had.

In his meeting with Indo-Pacific 4 grouping, representatives had reaffirmed support for Ukraine and committed to working together to make purchasing defence equipment more efficient.

"As we all are increasing our defence spending, we don't want to see the price of defence assets going up and defense companies making increased margins."

He said it was a "real opportunity" for countries to work together on procurement, and get efficiency, scale and interoperability into the purchases.

In particular, he raised the concern that an increase in defence spending would result in huge amounts of money going toward the defence industry.

"Because each country comes with its own bespoke asks and they want some customisation, some difference, you end up paying for that."

Luxon said their conversations included a desire to work together to get a "maximum return" to "genuinely upgrade your capability."

"You just don't want to pay more for delivering the same capability."

He wouldn't charactise New Zealand as being at the "back of the queue" of the arms race, given a step up in the country's budget as well. He also indicated the developing defence industry in New Zealand that could benefit by contributing to European procurement.

He said there was a connection between the Euro-Atlantic and Pacific region, and affirming that was also about differentiating themselves from the countries supporting Russian in the war against Ukraine. Luxon said that highlighted the separation in simple terms.

He also said he'd raised with China the need to use any influence it has over North Korea and Russia to reduce harm in the war against Ukraine.

Luxon spoke about a "coordinated" and "concerted" effort bilaterally by "those four powers" Iran, China, North Korea and Russia "against the West."

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