Just how it might end will likely be determined at the NATO summit in The Hague in late June. Since then, though, Rutte has convinced most NATO countries, including Germany, to accept the 5-percent plan in order to appease Trump. "There are currently no indications that this war is going to come to a rapid conclusion,” Merz said last Wednesday in Berlin, sounding somewhat disillusioned. "We can all only hope that at least there, it will be possible to bring the warring parties together for a constructive discussion,” Merz said. It is, he added, "the last earthly authority, so to speak.”Otherwise, Merz’s diplomatic offensive will have come to naught.