The Hague to host NATO summit 2025; Will cost at least €75 million: report
The Hague will most likely host the NATO summit in 2025, insiders told the Telegraaf. The government set 75 million euros aside to organize the most important NATO meeting of the year.
Last year, it was announced that the Netherlands would host the NATO summit for the first time in 2025. The only question left was whether the summit would be in The Hague or Amsterdam. The decision hasn’t yet officially been made, but according to the Telegraaf’s sources, it will be in The Hague.
That means that Mark Rutte could potentially run his first summit as secretary general of the alliance in his hometown.
The NATO summit usually happens in July. A procession of heads of state and ministers will come to the Netherlands for the summit, meaning intense security measures that will likely impact a large part of Randstad residents.
The government allocated 75 million euros to organizing the summit in the Spring Memorandum, one of the annual updates to the national budget. The actual cost will likely be higher. According to the Telegraaf, the amount doesn’t include any Defense costs and the organizing municipality usually also spends a few million euros on hosting such a large event.
The Hague has some experience in hosting international summits. In 2014, the city was the location for the Nuclear Security Summit, attended by the American and Chinese presidents and overshadowed by Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea.