Trump lashes out at NATO as first day of summit wraps in Turkiye

Published 7 July 2026 · europe

Leaders have gathered in Ankara for a two-day summit slated to cover defence spending and the Russia-Ukraine war. United States President Donald Trump has declared

Leaders have gathered in Ankara for a two-day summit slated to cover defence spending and the Russia-Ukraine war. United States President Donald Trump has declared he is “very disappointed with NATO” on the first day of a summit of leaders of the mutual defence alliance in Turkiye that exposed tensions over European defence spending, the Russia-Ukraine war and the future of Greenland. Trump arrived in Ankara on Tuesday for the summit along with other NATO leaders. The main session will be on Wednesday. The summit comes at a fragile time for the 77-year-old alliance, which has seen Trump sow discord over Iran, Greenland and Washington’s commitment to protecting fellow members. After criticising NATO allies during a news conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Trump said that if the summit “weren’t held in Turkiye, where my friend happens to be a very strong leader, a very strong person, it’s possible that I wouldn’t have attended”. Trump also named European countries who he perceived as unsupportive during the US-Israel war on Iran, saying, “We weren’t treated well because we did something in Iran.” “Why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars when they’re not there for us? We’ve always been there for them,” he said. “Italy turned us down, and Germany turned us down, and France turned us down.” The US president cast a brighter eye toward Ankara, remarking on the “chemistry” between the US and Turkiye, vowing to remove sanctions and saying he would soon decide about the potential sale of F-35s.

“We have a very good relationship,” he said. Defence spending Topping this year’s NATO agenda is the pledge by members – in part spurred by pressure from Trump – to increase their defence budgets. But just five NATO members are projected to meet the alliance’s goal of spending 3.5 percent of their gross domestic product on core defence in 2026, according to updated NATO data published before the summit. That figure stems from an agreement reached in The Hague last year, which increased the spending goal on core items, such as weapons and soldiers, from a previous 2 percent. Members also pledged to spend another 1.5 percent of GDP on broader defence-related items, such as boosting cybersecurity. On the eve of the Ankara summit, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte demanded “clear, concrete and credible plans” for defence spending while insisting the evidence so far was “impressive”. Delivering an address at a defence industry forum Tuesday, Rutte pointed to threats from China, North Korea and Iran – in addition to Russia, whose defence industry is “working around the clock” to supply the war on Ukraine. “We must remain vigilant,” Rutte said. “These countries are increasingly working together.” Analyst Alexandru Hudisteanu told Al Jazeera that Trump’s “aggressive” approach is “waking up Europeans” to the fact that they need to spend more.