Trump sets NATO agenda for Ankara summit

Washington, July 6 (IANS) US President Donald Trump will travel to Ankara on Monday for a NATO summit focused on defence spending, burden sharing and defence industrial cooperation, with meetings scheduled with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the White House said.

Trump will depart the White House on Monday evening and arrive in the Turkish capital on Tuesday afternoon. He will be greeted by Erdogan before participating in a State Arrival Ceremony and Honour Guard review, followed by bilateral talks, White House Spokeswoman Anna Kelly said.

On Tuesday evening, Trump will attend the NATO Leaders’ Social Dinner. On Wednesday, he will participate in the official welcome and family photo before joining the NATO Leaders’ working session. He will later hold bilateral meetings with Zelensky and al-Sharaa before holding a press conference and departing Ankara. Trump is scheduled to return to the White House on Wednesday evening, Kelly said.

US Ambassador to NATO Matthew G. Whitaker said the Ankara summit would measure allies’ progress towards the defence spending commitments agreed at last year’s Hague summit, where NATO members committed to spending five per cent of their GDP on defence.

“President Trump expects all allies to step up immediately, and not only get on a sustainable path to the 5 per cent but get to 5 per cent as soon as possible in a very dangerous world that needs capable allies,” Whitaker said.

Whitaker said NATO allies had since committed nearly 139 billion US dollars in additional defence spending, with “roughly half of that being on American-made equipment and weapons and munitions.”

“That’s a good start, but some allies are doing more than others,” he said, identifying Poland, the Nordic countries and the Baltic states as leading the effort, while noting that Germany was on track to reach the target by 2029. He said all allies should demonstrate “meaningful upward trajectories” in defence spending to ensure fairer burden sharing across the alliance.

Whitaker said increasing defence production on both sides of the Atlantic would be central to achieving NATO’s new capability goals.

“Our goal continues to be shifting the burden of the conventional defense of Europe to our European allies in Canada,” he said. “The United States remains a proud NATO member,” but added that Washington also had “responsibilities elsewhere in the world, as the world’s only superpower.” He said the United States needed allies that were capable, interoperable and able to strengthen the alliance’s collective military power.

Kelly told reporters that the administration viewed the summit as another step in reshaping NATO.

“Under this President’s leadership, the United States has initiated a fundamental and historic shift in the structure of NATO, moving the alliance from a model of dependency on the United States to one of real burden sharing and self-reliance,” Kelly said.

She added that allies would discuss procurement frameworks to expand defence capabilities and ways for American companies to accelerate and showcase their products across the alliance.

Later senior administration officials said Trump would use his meeting with Zelensky to discuss efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

They described the battlefield as having “frozen over the last couple of months” and said the President believed there was “a real sense of urgency” to end the conflict and stop further loss of life. They added that Trump was expected to follow up with Russian President Vladimir Putin after meeting Zelensky.

The officials also said they expected “billions of dollars in announcements” on the sidelines of the summit involving defence co-production, new manufacturing facilities and purchases of advanced American weapons systems.

They said the United States had sold about 50 billion dollars worth of defence equipment to European and Canadian allies over the past year, while the American defence industry currently has about 300 billion dollars in back orders.

They also confirmed that the Pentagon’s review of US troop deployments and military basing in Europe remained under way as part of a broader strategy to encourage European allies to assume greater responsibility for the continent’s defence.

The summit comes as NATO continues to adapt to a changing European security environment following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Many member states have significantly increased defence spending in recent years, although several allies are still working towards meeting the alliance’s new spending commitments.

–IANS

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