NATO Ankara Summit: Allies' Unity Worry Is Trump
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- NATO leaders will meet in Ankara on 7-8 July for the 2026 summit, with allies more worried about Trump disrupting unity than about Ukraine policy itself, per Crisis Group analyst Olga Oliker
- Trump has escalated criticism of NATO allies for what he views as inadequate support in Washington's war of choice with Iran alongside Israel, announced further U.S. troop and weapons withdrawals from Europe, and speculated about leaving the alliance entirely
- Trump shut off a large U.S. aid pipeline to Ukraine, forcing other allies to fill the gap — the EU finalized a €90 billion support loan to Kyiv, with disbursements beginning 29 June
- Article 5 of NATO's constitutive treaty — the cornerstone mutual defense pledge — has been repeatedly cast into doubt by the U.S. president, who has questioned whether Washington would come to allies' aid if things in Europe went awry
- Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and leaders of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and UAE have been invited to attend the Ankara summit
- Under the 2025 Hague Summit commitment, each NATO member must spend at least 3.5% of GDP on the military and 1.5% on critical infrastructure by 2035
Why it matters: Allies must publicly affirm commitments while privately calibrating between standing up to and appeasing a U.S. president who questions Article 5, withdraws U.S. assets from Europe, and has floated leaving NATO entirely. With Trump shutting off U.S. aid to Ukraine — a gap the EU's €90 billion Kyiv loan only partially fills — the financial and strategic cost of continued American unreliability falls squarely on European defense budgets and long-term planning.
