Jul 10, 2026 · 40 min · 11 segments
NATO just wrapped up its 2026 summit in Ankara, Turkey. Over two days of meetings and other events, the leaders of the alliance's thirty-two member states discussed a range of issues and challenges…
Rachel RizzoGuest
John AmbleHost
I mentioned to you before we started recording that there are some, I mean, these are regular occurrences, right? But there are some summits that Madrid, that something feels big about them because there's a big announcement or there's some big agreement reached.
And then there are others that kind of, not to trivialize them because they're still important, but become sort of footnotes in NATO's history.
Look, I think if I'm going to put a just sort of crude point on it, it's probably going to be one of the more forgettable summits.
You know, this was just two and a half years after Russia's full scale invasion in Ukraine.
There had been a lot of back and forth about Europeans leading the defense of Ukraine, you know, offering them weapons, selling them weapons, the role of the U.S., And I think leaders like Putin had taken stock of those factions, factors and divisions, and they really wanted to put on a unifying front.
The allies agree to not only spend the agreed upon 2% of GDP on defense, something that was reinforced at the whale summit in 2014, but they now agree that they're going to spend 5% of their GDP on defense.
The last 1.5% It's going to be on supporting things like infrastructure, cyber, those types of things.
And so now what NATO has been doing is trying to deliver on that spending, not only just trying to increase its defense spending, but trying to turn that defense spending into actual capabilities, which at the end of the day really is what matters.
You can talk about how much you're spending on defense, but if it's not going to actual capabilities to defend the European continent, then what does it actually matter? So I think that's what the Ankara summit was about.
It was about delivering on that defense spending and at the same time showing Trump that Europeans are stepping up to the plate.
I think one thing we saw at this summit was less fear and less commotion from European allies as a result of what Trump has to say, because they are now used to him coming to these summits and being bombastic and sitting on stage and saying certain things.
And there's always been a pretty intense reaction from Europeans on that front.
But I think we're seeing now, because they are backing up their words with actual actions, the outcomes of these summits, certainly this summit specifically, is healthier than it has been in the past.
So what are those outcomes? You know, looking back on the summit, what are the most important, I guess, things that were accomplished over the course of these two days in Ankara?
I mentioned to you before we started recording that there are some, I mean, these are regular occurrences, right? But there are some summits that Madrid, that something feels big about them because there's a big announcement or there's some big agreement reached.
And then there are others that kind of, not to trivialize them because they're still important, but become sort of footnotes in NATO's history.
Look, I think if I'm going to put a just sort of crude point on it, it's probably going to be one of the more forgettable summits.
You know, this was just two and a half years after Russia's full scale invasion in Ukraine.
There had been a lot of back and forth about Europeans leading the defense of Ukraine, you know, offering them weapons, selling them weapons, the role of the U.S., And I think leaders like Putin had taken stock of those factions, factors and divisions, and they really wanted to put on a unifying front.
The allies agree to not only spend the agreed upon 2% of GDP on defense, something that was reinforced at the whale summit in 2014, but they now agree that they're going to spend 5% of their GDP on defense.
The last 1.5% It's going to be on supporting things like infrastructure, cyber, those types of things.
And so now what NATO has been doing is trying to deliver on that spending, not only just trying to increase its defense spending, but trying to turn that defense spending into actual capabilities, which at the end of the day really is what matters.
You can talk about how much you're spending on defense, but if it's not going to actual capabilities to defend the European continent, then what does it actually matter? So I think that's what the Ankara summit was about.
It was about delivering on that defense spending and at the same time showing Trump that Europeans are stepping up to the plate.
I think one thing we saw at this summit was less fear and less commotion from European allies as a result of what Trump has to say, because they are now used to him coming to these summits and being bombastic and sitting on stage and saying certain things.
And there's always been a pretty intense reaction from Europeans on that front.
But I think we're seeing now, because they are backing up their words with actual actions, the outcomes of these summits, certainly this summit specifically, is healthier than it has been in the past.
So what are those outcomes? You know, looking back on the summit, what are the most important, I guess, things that were accomplished over the course of these two days in Ankara?
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