Allies to unveil more European NATO at Ankara summit

NATO leaders gathered in Ankara on Tuesday for a two-day summit that European governments used to showcase tens of billions of dollars in new arms and defense deals. The meeting in Türkiye’s capital, the alliance’s second summit hosted by Türkiye, brought together leaders from 32 member states as NATO tried to project unity while Washington’s demands for higher defense spending hung over the talks.

The summit opened after months of friction across the Atlantic over the Iran war, Greenland, defense spending and the U.S. force posture in Europe. Donald Trump’s arrival sharpened the pressure. European capitals moved to show they were answering his calls to spend more on defense, even as a Pentagon review of U.S. troops in Europe and reports of possible withdrawal plans unsettled allies who still rely on American forces, intelligence and logistics.

NATO’s public summit materials put defense investment at the top of the agenda, alongside the alliance’s role in defense industry production, support for Ukraine, deterrence and defense, and collective defense under Article 5. The schedule also included the NATO Summit Defence Industry Forum in Ankara on July 7, a sign that weapons output and supply chains had moved from the margins of alliance policy to the center of the political conversation. European leaders were expected to point to NATO’s pledge to move toward spending 5% of GDP on defense and defense-related measures by 2035 as evidence that they were responding to Washington’s pressure.

The most concrete display of that response was the planned announcement of arms and defense deals worth tens of billions of dollars. The scale of the packages was meant to show that Europe was not just talking about burden-sharing but financing it, even if the alliance’s military balance still depended on U.S. power. That was the tension running through Ankara: a more European NATO on paper, but one whose credibility still rested on American backing.

NATO ambassadors had already approved summit text that said leaders, including Trump, would reaffirm an "ironclad commitment" to collective defense under Article 5. That pledge was the clearest sign that, for all the talk of European autonomy, the alliance was still anchoring itself to the promise that has defined it for decades. The Ankara summit showed how far Europe had moved, and how much of NATO still waited on Washington.