ANKARA: US President Donald Trump offered Nato allies an unexpected warm embrace as they wrapped up a key summit on Wednesday after earlier lashing out at them over their response to his war on Iran.
It was an abrupt swing from antagonism to affection within the space of a few short hours, illustrating the wide range of emotions exhibited by the mercurial US leader.
The summit comes at a fraught time for the 77-year-old transatlantic alliance, with Trump demanding members make good on a pledge to ramp up defence spending as Washington takes a step back from Europe.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron said he would use a summit of Ukraine’s allies next week to unveil new defence initiatives and joint military exercises, presenting the gathering as further evidence that Europe was assuming greater responsibility for its own security.
Alliance’s brain death ‘reversed’
More than seven years after declaring Nato was suffering from “brain death”, Macron said at the alliance’s annual summit in Ankara that Europe had shown it was investing more in defence, defending its sovereignty and developing strategic autonomy within Nato. Also in the final Nato declaration, Europe and Canada pledged to keep military support flowing to Ukraine to the tune of 70 billion euros ($80 billion) a year in both 2026 and 2027.
Keen to avoid a new confrontation with Trump, Nato allies unveiled tens of billions in new arms contracts on Tuesday in a bid to prove they were making good on a pledge to hike defence spending.
Nato chief Mark Rutte insisted the alliance was emerging stronger from the summit in Turkey — despite the disagreements.
“I always felt that families where sometimes you have a heart to heart and sometimes you fight each other a bit are much stronger,” he said.
“While allies continue to finalise the details, we know that this 27-billion euro ($30.84 billion) investment will modernise our existing fuel storage and distribution infrastructure and support new facilities including pipelines towards the eastern part of the alliance.” Rutte did not specify where the money would come from or what exactly it would be spent on.
“It was a great meeting, there was a lot of love in that room, a lot of unity,” Trump told reporters after the closed-door meeting of 32 heads of state at the Nato summit in the Turkish capital Ankara.
US to stay
Behind closed doors, Trump had reassured them he wanted the US to stay in the military alliance, saying: “We want to remain with you”, a source inside the session said. And that was reflected in the final declaration in which Nato leaders reaffirmed their “ironclad commitment” to the mutual assistance clause enshrined in Article 5 of the alliance treaty.
“An attack on one is an attack on all,” it said, in wording that sought to ease concerns about Washington’s commitment to the alliance. But the day had not begun well with Trump lashing out over Nato allies’ failure to back his Iran campaign just before the session, threatening to cut trade with Spain, and insisting he still wants Nato member Denmark’s territory of Greenland.
Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2026
