The contrast between the Ankara Summit Declaration’s ringing commitment to allied unity and comments by Trump before on the sidelines of the summit - assailing European allies over defence spending and their lack of support for his war in Iran, renewing his demands to take control of Greenland from NATO-ally and threatening to halt all trade with leftist-governed Spain - undermines the message of NATO deterrence. Once again, the President hinted he could pull all US troops out of Europe, then turned on a dime and said he had experienced “tremendous love” in the short three-hour NATO working session. Trump’s threats to resume war with Iran overshadowed the summit, crowding NATO’s carefully tailored messaging out of media headlines.
The Ankara Summit Declaration 08 July 2026 3 MIN READ
This is 1 minute longer than last year’s Hague Declaration, which was the shortest in NATO history. However, there is no return to the past long communiqués that committed NATO to nuclear and conventional arms control and surveyed a wide range of regional and global conflicts.
This text, finalised the week before the summit and issued despite President Trump’s anti-NATO tirades, is one paragraph longer than the 2025 Hague Declaration, adding a crucial paragraph on support for Ukraine, reinforced by Trump’s agreement to allow Kyiv to produce US Patriot missile interceptors in Ukraine
1. We, the Heads of State and Government of the North Atlantic Alliance, have gathered in Ankara to reaffirm our ironclad commitment to our collective defence under Article 5 of the Washington Treaty and to the transatlantic bond. An attack on one
Almost identical language to The Hague Summit Declaration in 2025, reassuring to European allies
is an attack on all. Our unity, solidarity and collective strength remain the foundation of peace, security, and prosperity for the one Ironical that this phrase, absent from The Hague Declaration, was added at a summit hosted by Turkey amid a heightened crackdown on democratic opposition, civil society and media critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
billion citizens in our Alliance of free and democratic nations. We remain committed to our 360-degree approach to deterrence and defence. 2. To counter the long-term threat Russia poses to Euro-Atlantic security and stability, and the persistent threat of terrorism, Allies are delivering on The Hague defence commitment. In 2025, European Allies and Canada increased their investments in core defence requirements by more than $139 billion. Our investments are delivering the capabilities we need while strengthening our
The recognition that “allies are delivering” on the commitment to raise defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035 contrasts with Trump’s public bashing of the Europeans on arrival in Ankara for allegedly failing to meet their spending commitments.
industrial base and resilience. Today in Ankara, we announce more
Increasing defence industrial capacity was a core objective of the summit. than $50 billion in new procurements and commit to expanding However, the phrasing on defence trade barriers is ambiguous - it can be collective manufacturing capacity and working with industry to interpreted by the US as warning accelerate innovation. We will continue our work to eliminate against EU efforts to promote “buy European” to strengthen the European Defence Technological and Industrial defence trade barriers among Allies and leverage NATO’s Base, and by Europeans as a warning partnerships to maximise defence industrial depth and cooperation. to Washington to ease its technology sharing restrictions.
3. We are building the future: a stronger Europe in a stronger NATO – a modernised Alliance. European Allies and Canada, working with the United States, are assuming greater responsibility for the Alliance’s defence. NATO’s deterrence and defence rest on an appropriate mix
This slogan, coined by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, stops short of embracing US demands that the Europeans take primary responsibility for the conventional defence of Europe.
of nuclear, conventional, and missile defence capabilities, complemented by space and cyber assets. We are committed to
A key reminder that NATO is a nuclear alliance, legitimizing the policies of its three nuclear powers - the US, France and the UK