NATO summit in The Hague costing €1 million per minute
The NATO summit in The Hague next week is the most expensive one yet, AD calculated now that the full program has been announced. The estimated costs are 183.4 million euros. Calculated on the time that the world leaders are actually meeting, that comes down to just over 1 million euros per minute.
The world leaders will hold the formal “North Atlantic Council at the level of heads of state and heads of government” in the World Forum in The Hague at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday. The meeting is scheduled for 2.5 hours. NATO chief Mark Rutte will hold a closing press conference at 14:00.
At each of the previous NATO summits in Washington, Vilnius, and Madrid, the world leaders held three such meetings. This time, Rutte opted for only one meeting due to the temperament of United States president Donald Trump, NATO sources told the newspaper.
But that does make this summit the most expensive one yet, when looking at how long the world leaders are actually meeting. It is also among the most expensive in absolute amounts. The NATO summit in Wales in 2013 cost 81.3 million euros. Madrid spent 50 million euros on the summit in 2022, and Vilnius spent 30 million euros in 2023, but that amount excluded the costs of air defense and naval ships that NATO sent to Lithuania.
The leaders have also been invited to a dinner at Huis Ten Bosch Palace on Tuesday evening, but this is described as a “social dinner” on the program. At the same time as the dinner, the Foreign Ministers will meet with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas to discuss Ukraine. And earlier on Tuesday, the Defense Ministers will discuss the defense industry with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The organizers of the NATO summit in The Hague did not comment on AD’s calculations. They previously stressed that the summit is much more than just the meeting of world leaders.
