NATO leaders meet in Ankara amid US disputes over Iran, Greenland and defense spending

BERLIN — European leaders breathed a sigh of relief as U.S. President Donald Trump departed last week’s NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. Despite a few unseemly moments in which Trump reiterated his desire to seize Greenland and nonsensically ordered a halt to all trade with Spain, the meeting went off without any major catastrophes. Most importantly, Trump did not announce any major troop withdrawals from Europe or any moves to leave the alliance. He even had warm words for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and pledged to grant Ukraine a license to manufacture Patriot air-defense missiles domestically. By the end, even Trump proclaimed that there was “love” in the air. But optics aside, the summit was an absurd exercise. NATO leaders reveled in their pledges to increase defense-related spending to 5 percent, even though everyone knows that this arbitrary number means nothing in the absence of deeper discussions about capabilities. The figure was pulled out of thin air last year to appease Trump. In the months leading up to the summit, the same leaders had worried that Trump

Since his re-election, Donald Trump has gravely damaged the NATO alliance by halting aid to Ukraine, appeasing Vladimir Putin, launching an unprovoked war on Iran, and undermining European allies. The Ankara summit’s final communiqué lays claims of unity and resolve which are largely false. Europe must maintain its own resolve – building its own independent defense since the US can no longer be trusted.

On July 7-8, NATO held its 36th official summit in Ankara, Turkey. There were several consequential topics to discuss at this year’s meeting, chief among them the wars in Ukraine and Iran and the uncertain future of European defense and security. We asked five experts to assess the outcomes of the summit for the various parties involved.Liviu HorovitzAssociate Researcher at German Institute for Security and International AffairsThe key takeaway from Ankara is that even President Donald Trump is struggling to escape NATO’s strategic logic. He arrived attacking allies and questioning the alliance’s value, yet left reaffirming Article 5 and praising The post NATO’s Unity on Paper and Fractures Beneath the Surface appeared first on War on the Rocks.

From threats against Greenland to verbal gaffes, Donald Trump's behavior in Ankara raises tensions — and concerns

Sudden shift may be linked to affinity for Erdoğan but what might be consequences of erratic behavior towards alliance?Donald Trump’s relationship with Washington’s Nato allies is nobody’s idea of a happy marriage.But the US president’s volatile performance at the western military alliance’s annual summit in Ankara this week seemed extreme, even by Trumpian standards. As commentators sought toexplain what happened, their usually capacious stock of Trump-fitting cliches was at risk of exhaustion. Continue reading...

The summit ended with relief after months of severe strains triggered by Trump's efforts to take Greenland from ‌fellow NATO ‌member Denmark and divisions over the Iran war.