Nato braces for difficult summit as Trump puts pressure on spending | Nato
NATO leaders will meet in Ankara on Tuesday after six turbulent months. While the United States continues to pressure its allies to increase defense spending, the other 31 members of the alliance will be hoping to mollify the unpredictable Donald Trump.
On Monday, NATO secretary general Mark Rutte called on allies to present “clear, concrete and credible plans” to meet the organisation’s spending targets. “President Trump expects all allies to take immediate action and get on the path to 5 percent, and to do so urgently,” he said.
NATO members will unveil tens of billions of dollars of new arms contracts at an industry forum on the sidelines of the summit as they seek to show Trump they are delivering on defense spending promises.
A two-day summit in the Turkish capital is expected to agree that allies will pledge a largely symbolic €70 billion (£60 billion) in military aid to Ukraine this year and next; but this largely reflects commitments already made to a country with no path to join NATO.
This isn’t a deal that will attract Trump’s attention in the same way that last year’s headline deal did. European members and Canada subsequently pledged to increase defense spending to 5% of their gross domestic product (3.5% directly to facilitate troop movements and 1.5% on roads, bridges and ports).
“It’s not about making anyone happy, it’s about delivery,” Rutte said during a visit to London last week. “And what Donald Trump expects is, of course, delivery.”
When Rutte met Trump in the Oval Office last month, he brought with him several large cardboard panels; These panels showed how much non-U.S. members of NATO have spent since the U.S. president began complaining about Europe being given free rein on U.S. defense spending.
Rutte highlighted a chart referencing the “Trump trillion”, the cumulative amount spent on defense by European members and Canada since the two-time president first took office in 2017.
The basic communication was aimed at showing that Trump, in Rutte’s words, “was successful in getting the Europeans to spend more.” But with transatlantic relations already at a low ebb and the United States eager to ensure steps are taken to meet its 3.5 percent commitment, a diplomatically harmonious summit cannot be guaranteed.
on friday, Trump published a graphic on the Truth Social platform It shows the defense budgets of NATO members and compares the US’s massive $999 million (£747 million) spend with smaller figures for European states including Britain and France.
Introducing the chart, he wrote: “It is ridiculous for the United States to continue down this unilateral path when relations are not reciprocal.”
Trump has continued to strain relations with US allies since the beginning of this year, when he threatened to seize control of Greenland from NATO member Denmark. The US and Israel failed to consult European leaders before launching their economically disastrous attack on Iran, and then complained when they refused to allow US jets to bomb Iran from their territory.
There have been rows with Britain over Keir Starmer’s refusal to fully participate in the bombing of Iran, and with Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, whom he bizarrely accused of being obsessed with him on Monday. Relations with Canadian Mark Carney also became difficult after Trump floated the extraordinary idea of the United States taking over its northern neighbor.
The USA also plans to reduce the number of troops and equipment it allocates to Europe in the event of a war with Russia, and to reduce the number of F-15 and F-16 jets by one third. Last month, U.S. defense secretary Pete Hegseth said the United States would take further scrutiny of its existing forces in Europe and threaten to cut numbers the most in countries that spend the least.
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Trump is expected to bring 1,400 people with him to Türkiye, including those responsible for bringing back toilet waste; this is standard protocol to prevent other countries from analyzing the material for health intelligence purposes. The US coming in large numbers is seen as a relief, given that Trump has occasionally flirted with the idea of leaving NATO, including at a summit in 2018.
However, a significant effort is being made behind the scenes to purify what is happening in Ankara from Trump.
Former NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said she expected the final summit declaration – the commonly agreed diplomatic text – to be brief, “possibly one-page” and “restate some of the fundamental principles” that are the reason for the alliance’s existence.
The final draft text, which is still subject to approval by meeting leaders, reaffirms the “firm commitment” to NATO’s crucial commitments Article 5A system in which an attack on one member country is considered an attack on all member countries. The fact that its authors found it necessary to restate this provision so clearly is a reminder of how worrying 2026 has been so far.
Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Europe, announced last week that European allies have “largely filled the gaps” left by the reduction of U.S. troops in the war. Although important, European efforts are not alike, especially since they lack long-range bombers, so cruise missiles could be an alternative.
A clue to the leaders’ chemistry levels can be gleaned from Trump’s agenda in Türkiye. Aside from Wednesday’s meeting of NATO leaders and the previous night’s summit dinner at Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s presidential palace, his only other confirmed bilateral meetings were with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a war leader he admires, and Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Success in Ankara is unlikely to be defined by diplomatic promises. Asked what a positive summit would look like, Lungescu suggested “no angry outbursts from President Trump,” then added “a reaffirmation of alliance unity” and “a lot more money” for defense contracts and Ukraine.
