Trump Criticizes Spain Over Defense Spending as NATO Pledges Article 5 Support in Ankara

NATO leaders concluded a two-day summit in Turkiye’s Ankara on Wednesday afternoon as members discussed defence budgets and support for Ukraine while Donald Trump criticized NATO partners including Spain over defence spending and imposed a trade embargo on Spain.

“NATO concluded a two-day summit in Turkiye’s Ankara on Wednesday afternoon, with members discussing defence budgets and support for Ukraine, but with simultaneous talk of unity and discord underscoring an uncertain path ahead for an alliance that has been the bedrock of the West’s security architecture for more than 75 years”

Al Jazeera

Trump told reporters, “It was amazing, actually,” and said, “The unity in that room was incredible, really a love, it was sort of pretty wild,” as the alliance reaffirmed its “ironclad commitment” to the mutual assistance clause in Article 5.

Al Jazeera

NATO leaders also pledged “more than $50 billion in new procurements” and 70 billion euros ($80bn) in assistance to Ukraine, while NATO data cited by Al Jazeera said only five of its 32 members are projected to meet the alliance’s 3.5 percent goal in 2026.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the U.S. allies “warmly welcomed President Trump’s leadership,” even after Trump reopened old wounds by insisting again ahead of the summit that the U.S. should control Greenland, a semiautonomous part of ally Denmark.

As the summit host, Trump said of the gathering, “There was a lot of love in that room. A lot of unity,” and NATO leaders said their pledge to Article 5 is “ironclad.”

After the Ankara summit, The Guardian reported that NATO leaders were surprised by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s gift of guns, with Keir Starmer saying he and others received a revolver engraved with their names.

The Guardian quoted Péter Magyar on X saying, “An unusual gift from president Erdoğan at the Nato summit: a Magnum revolver with ammunition, engraved with my name,” and described how Bart De Wever learned of the exact nature of the gift only after landing in Belgium.

Al-Jazeera Net

In parallel, Al Jazeera said Trump asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to “cut off all trade … including visits” with Spain amid tensions over defence spending.

Al Jazeera also reported that Trump told reporters, “I’m not happy with NATO because of what they did with Greenland,” and “I’m not happy with NATO because of the fact that they didn’t want to help us with the number one state sponsor of terror, that’s Iran.”

The Hill framed the summit’s flash points around whether Trump would allow Turkey back into the F-35 fighter jet program, noting that a group of bipartisan lawmakers wrote to Trump on July 2 saying, “With President Erdogan’s continued aggression toward our greatest partners along with his troubling defense partnerships with our adversaries, it is not in the best interest of our country to sell them F-35s,” while also citing Turkey’s continued use of Russian S-400 missile defense systems.

NATO’s Ankara summit also produced a concrete shift for Ukraine as NPR reported that Trump said the U.S. will give Ukraine a license to make Patriot air defense systems to counter missile attacks from Russia in their more than four-year war.

NPR quoted Trump saying, “We'll give them the right to make Patriots. We'll show them how to do it,” and said Trump added, “I think they can produce them pretty quickly.”

Al Jazeera said NATO leaders pledged 70 billion euros ($80bn) in assistance to Ukraine, while Jolyon Howorth told Al Jazeera that “there is little unity, either within Europe or between the Atlantic partners, as to the way forward with Ukraine.”

AP News reported that NATO leaders agreed on a 70 billion euro ($80 billion) package of military support for Ukraine both this year and in 2027, with the figure involving 30 billion euros each year from a European Union loan program plus 40 billion euros from NATO allies.

Foreign Policy described the broader stakes for Europe as NATO “playing a waiting game,” with Nathalie Tocci saying allies are working to minimize blowups with Trump while hoping that “something will happen internally in the United States” and that eventually there will be “an administration with whom one can work.”