President Donald Trump arrived in Ankara, Turkey, on Monday for the 36th NATO heads of state summit — the first visit by a US president to Turkey in 17 years — as Russian missiles and drones killed at least 22 civilians in Kyiv overnight in an attack timed to arrive on the eve of the alliance’s deliberations. The summit, billed by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte as a gathering of “delivery and implementation” rather than new commitments, is opening with an immediate and concrete test case for what delivery actually means: whether the allies gathered in Ankara can accelerate the supply of Patriot interceptor missiles that might have stopped Monday’s attack.
What the Summit Is Designed to Achieve
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who is chairing the meeting, described the Ankara summit as one of “delivery and implementation,” rather than creation and innovation. NATO’s agenda identifies three key issues: Europe’s increased investment in defence, the state of the defence industry, and the war in Ukraine.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has outlined three core priorities for the summit: continuing to increase allied defence investment, bolstering transatlantic defence industrial production, and supporting Ukraine.
NATO leaders including Trump are set to affirm an “ironclad commitment” to collective defence under the alliance’s Article 5 pact at the summit, according to a text approved by NATO ambassadors and reviewed by Reuters. NATO members are also set to pledge €70 billion in military assistance to Ukraine for 2026 and “at least equivalent levels” of support in 2027, according to the declaration.
The declaration, however, still needs final approval from the leaders at the summit, and is complicated by the fact that Italy has been blocking some Ukraine commitments. The text is still being finalised.
Trump’s Complicated Relationship With NATO
Trump’s statements criticising NATO and casting doubt on the alliance’s value to the United States have caused some allied governments to question the administration’s commitment to the alliance. President Trump’s stated interest in acquiring Greenland — a self-governing part of the Kingdom of Denmark, a founding NATO member — has exacerbated these concerns for many allies.
After disagreements with European leaders over the US-Israeli war against Iran, Trump questioned the US commitment to mutual defence obligations within NATO, even saying that he was considering the possibility of the country’s withdrawal from the alliance.
Yet Trump is arriving in Ankara with a genuine claim on NATO’s direction. The alliance’s decision to raise its spending benchmark from 2% to 3.5% of GDP — agreed ahead of the Ankara summit — reflects a sustained US pressure campaign that Trump has been waging since his first term. Rutte has highlighted this as “Trump’s Trillion” — a reference to the combined additional European defence spending generated under the pressure of US demands.
The Trump administration is aggressively pushing for a fundamental restructuring of the transatlantic security alliance, demanding that European nations assume primary responsibility for their own defence. The Ankara Summit serves as a “delivery” checkpoint to assess progress, while paving the way for accessing US defence procurement and diplomatic cooperation for those who are close to reaching the spending figure.
The Ukraine Ask — Patriot Missiles
The central operational request from Zelensky at Ankara is straightforward: more Patriot interceptor missiles. Monday’s attack, in which all 29 ballistic missiles fired at Kyiv struck their targets without interception, has given that request an immediate and vivid context.
Ahead of the summit, Zelensky is using the attacks on Kyiv to renew his plea for allies to supply Ukraine with missiles for Patriot systems. The “insufficient supply of interceptor missiles” was the reason Ukraine was unable to shoot down any ballistic missiles in Monday’s assault.
Trump will meet with Zelenskyy while in Turkey this week for the NATO summit, in a renewed push to end the war in Ukraine. The private meeting between the two leaders — whose relationship has been complicated by months of Trump’s ambivalence about US support — will be closely watched for any signals about whether the US is prepared to accelerate Patriot interceptor deliveries or to allow Ukraine to manufacture interceptors domestically.
The US ambassador to NATO signalled “substantial announcements” for Ukraine at the Ankara summit, stating that the US expects its “European allies to bear the burden of a war on the European continent” while adding that “the US isn’t going away.”
Turkey’s Strategic Leverage
The host of the summit stands to gain a strategic edge through hosting the NATO alliance, showcasing its booming defence industry and building military cooperation with member states. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to leverage bilateral talks with Trump to advocate for key defence priorities, including the SAMP/T missile defence system and the lifting of international restrictions on defence trade.
The choice of Ankara as the summit venue carries its own complications. Critics point out that hosting in Ankara reinforces the autocracy of President Erdogan, potentially weakening NATO’s commitment to liberal democracy as a cornerstone of the alliance. Human Rights Watch documented police entering opposition party headquarters with tear gas and daily mayoral arrests in the period leading up to the summit. The communiqué will affirm democratic values while the host government continues to erode them.
What Trump Is Expected to Announce
Multiple sources before the summit indicated that Trump has signalled he will “do something that’s going to make him very happy” — a reference to the F-35 deal with Turkey that has been blocked for years following Ankara’s purchase of the Russian S-400 air defence system. Whether that announcement materialises will be one of the most closely watched moments of the summit.
On Ukraine, the expectation is for substantial financial commitments and possibly new defence industrial cooperation agreements. Ukraine is expected to sign major defence deals with at least seven NATO countries by the end of the year. Whether those deals include the accelerated Patriot interceptor deliveries that Zelensky is demanding is the single most consequential question the summit will answer — and the one that Monday’s attack in Kyiv has made impossible to avoid.
