THE HAGUE, Netherlands >> NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte praised President Donald Trump for making Europe “pay in a BIG way,” as leaders gathered in the Netherlands on Tuesday for a historic summit that could unite them around a new defense spending pledge or widen divisions among the 32 member countries of the security alliance.

The U.S. president, while en route, published a screenshot of a private message from Rutte saying: “Donald, you have driven us to a really, really important moment for America and Europe and the world. You will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done.”

“Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win,” Rutte wrote. NATO confirmed that he sent the message.

Rutte appeared unconcerned that Trump aired it, telling reporters: “I have absolutely no trouble or problem with that because there’s nothing in it which had to stay secret.”

Rutte’s message also thanked Trump for his “decisive action” in Iran.

“That was truly extraordinary, and something no one else dared to do,” Rutte wrote. “It makes us all safer.”

Just hours before Trump landed in the Netherlands, he was desperate to hold together the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran, cursing and cajoling to make sure that history would remember him for bombing Iran’s nuclear sites over the weekend and brokering a peace deal days later.

By any measure, Trump’s actions over the previous 72 hours underscored to NATO countries how advanced the U.S. military was compared with the other forces. No other nation represented in the alliance has a military capable of flying halfway around the world to strike a distant, hardened target under a mountain in north-central Iran.

But the subtext of the meeting that opened in The Hague on Tuesday evening was clear: The other 31 NATO nations must adjust to an era in which they can no longer count on Washington as the linchpin of the 76-year-old alliance.

Trump arrived early in the evening after injecting uncertainty over whether the U.S. would abide by the mutual defense guarantees outlined in the NATO treaty. “Depends on your definition,” he said. Rutte said he has no doubt about the Article 5 guarantee, which says an armed attack on one member is an attack on all.

New spending goals

On Wednesday, the allies are likely to endorse a goal of spending 5% of their gross domestic product on their security, to be able to fulfil the alliance’s plans for defending against outside attack. Trump has said the U.S. should not have to.

Spain has said it cannot, and that the target is “unreasonable.” Slovakia said it reserves the right to decide how to reach the target by NATO’s new 2035 deadline.

“There’s a problem with Spain. Spain is not agreeing, which is very unfair to the rest of them, frankly,” Trump told reporters.

In 2018, a NATO summit during Trump’s first term unraveled due to a dispute over defense spending.

Ahead of the meeting, Britain, France and Germany committed to the 5% goal. The Netherlands is also on board. Nations closer to the borders of Ukraine, Russia and its ally Belarus had previously pledged to do so.

Spotlight shifts from Ukraine

Trump’s first appearance at NATO since returning to the White House was supposed to center on how the U.S. secured the historic military spending pledge from others in the alliance — effectively bending it to its will.

But the spotlight has shifted to Trump’s decision to strike three nuclear enrichment facilities in Iran that the administration says eroded Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, as well as the president’s sudden announcement that Israel and Iran had reached a “complete and total ceasefire.”

Ukraine has also suffered as a result of that new conflict. It has created a need for weapons and ammunition that Kyiv desperately wants, and shifted the world’s attention away from its ongoing war with Russia. Past NATO summits have focused almost entirely on the war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year.

Still, Rutte insisted NATO could manage more than one conflict at a time.

“If we would not be able to deal with ... the Middle East, which is very big and commanding all the headlines, and Ukraine at the same time, we should not be in the business of politics and military at all,” he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in The Hague for meetings, despite his absence from a leaders’ meeting aiming to seal the military spending agreement.

It’s a big change since the summit in Washington last year, when the alliance’s weighty communique included a vow to supply long-term security assistance to Ukraine, and a commitment to back the country “on its irreversible path” to NATO membership.

Zelenskyy’s first official engagement this time was with Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof at his official residence across the road from the summit venue.

But in a telling sign of Ukraine’s status at the summit, neither leader mentioned NATO. Ukraine’s bid to join the alliance has been put in deep freeze by Trump.

The U.S. has made no new public pledges of support to Ukraine since Trump took office six months ago.

This report contains information from the New York Times.