Trump heads to Ankara NATO summit as allies face pressure

Donald Trump arrived in Ankara on Tuesday for a NATO summit at the Beştepe Presidential Complex, where allies were under pressure to turn unity rhetoric into concrete commitments on defense spending, Ukraine and Iran. The two-day meeting in Türkiye was shaping up as a test of whether the alliance could answer Trump’s demands with new money and new pledges, not just familiar declarations of solidarity.

NATO said the summit on July 7-8 would review progress since the 2025 Hague gathering and set a roadmap for next steps. Its agenda centered on defense investment, defense industrial production and continued support for Ukraine, with NATO highlighting that European Allies and Canada increased core defense investment by USD 139 billion in 2025. The alliance has also been pushing members toward a new framework of 3.5% of GDP on core defense and 1.5% on wider security-related spending by 2035, with some allies expected to reach the 5% target in 2026 ahead of schedule.

A draft summit declaration was set to reaffirm an “ironclad commitment” to collective defense under Article 5 and to pledge €70 billion, about $80 billion, in military assistance to Ukraine for 2026, with at least equivalent support in 2027 pending final approval by leaders. The draft also described Russia as a long-term threat to Euro-Atlantic security and stability. It said allies would repeat that Iran must never obtain a nuclear weapon and call on Tehran to respect freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.

The pressure around the summit went beyond the communique. NATO leaders were preparing to unveil arms deals worth tens of billions of dollars in Ankara, a sign that they were trying to show Trump that the alliance is moving faster on burden-sharing. Before the summit, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said allies should present “clear, concrete and credible plans” to meet the spending targets.

Trump’s schedule in Ankara underscored how much of the summit was built around bilateral politics as well as alliance business. He was due to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, attend a NATO leaders’ dinner, join the traditional summit photo and hold separate meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Syrian President Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa before departing. Türkiye, which last hosted a NATO summit in Istanbul in 2004, is presenting the meeting as a checkpoint for the alliance after the Hague spending accord, but the real measure in Ankara will be whether leaders leave with firmer obligations on money, weapons and security guarantees.