All eyes are on Trump.Image: keystone
Today is the second major test for NATO since US President Donald Trump took office. An overview of the difficult topics.
Jul 8, 2026, 5:02 amJul 8, 2026, 5:02 am
At the summit in Ankara, Germany and the other European allies will have to convince Trump in a working session that NATO is still a valuable alliance for the USA.
The Republican had expressed doubts about this in recent months. He even told the Telegraph in the spring that there was hardly any debate that US membership would have to be reconsidered after the end of the Iran war.
Will the difficult task succeed? Like at the summit in The Hague last year, when the alliance struggled over a defense spending quota? After agreeing on a text for the planned final declaration, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Chancellor Friedrich Merz and other alliance partners have expressed confidence in recent days that a major debacle can be avoided.
An overview…
The Iran War and Trump’s Frustration
Anyone who had hoped that Trump would be tame at the summit was disappointed on the opening day. Shortly after his arrival in the Turkish capital, he again accused the allies Great Britain, Italy, Germany and France on Tuesday of leaving the USA hanging in the Iran war. “I was very disappointed with NATO,” he said on the sidelines of a meeting with host Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
It remains to be seen whether the conflict can be resolved. The final declaration of the summit should only state that Iran should never have nuclear weapons. Tehran is also called upon to fully respect freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.
The sharing of burdens
Americans no longer see Russia but China as the main challenge to their own security interests. They therefore want to significantly expand deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. Because their capacities are also limited, they require the Europeans to assume primary responsibility for the conventional defense of their continent in the future.
Merz and Co. want to demonstrate at the summit that they are ready to do this, and this commitment should also be recorded in the final declaration. According to information from the German Press Agency, the agreed draft states: “The European allies and Canada, together with the United States, are taking on more responsibility for the defense of the alliance.” The aim is therefore “a stronger Europe in a stronger NATO – a modernized alliance”.
Secretary General Rutte said at the summit on the relationship between the USA and Europeans: “It is not sustainable to expect a country with 350 million inhabitants, which is around eight hours’ flight from here, to defend Europe against Russia.” Especially not because 600 million people lived in this part of NATO territory and Europe is one of the wealthiest regions in the world. That’s why it’s now a matter of correcting this imbalance.
The quota
Because Europe can only become more independent if it invests massively, it was decided last year under pressure from Trump to spend five percent of gross domestic product on defense and security every year from 2035 at the latest. Of this, 3.5 percent should be classic defense spending, and another 1.5 percent could go towards infrastructure. Ankara will now check how far the allies are in implementation. Shortly before the summit, Trump criticized, among other things, the German contributions to the alliance as “ridiculous”.
The numbers
Can Trump be convinced otherwise? Merz and Rutte have hope that this can succeed. Just in time for the official welcome of the summit participants, NATO published new data on the defense spending of the alliance states on Tuesday evening.
Accordingly, Germany reported record defense spending again this year – a total of 124.7 billion euros, which corresponds to an increase of 25.5 percent compared to the previous year. In absolute figures, the increase of around 25.4 billion euros is the highest recorded for Germany in recent history.
Within NATO, only the USA spends more money on defense than the Federal Republic. According to NATO calculations, the share of defense spending in Germany’s gross domestic product (GDP) will reach 2.69 percent. Last year the rate was 2.22 percent.
Ukraine
At the end of the summit, Ukraine is expected to receive a new promise of billions in military aid to continue its defensive fight against Russia. According to the text of the final declaration, a minimum financing of 70 billion euros is planned for this year and next year for military equipment, support and training. In total that would be 140 billion euros.
However, an EU aid package of around 60 billion euros by the end of 2027 should be taken into account. This leaves around 80 billion euros that NATO states would have to cover nationally.
Chancellor Merz said of the planned commitment: “It is slowly becoming clear to the Kremlin that Russia will not prevail in this war and will not achieve its war goals.” The summit in Ankara could mark a turning point in this war. (sda/dpa)