Kenneth Glad
The gathering arrives during a difficult stretch for the alliance. Members are trying to show resolve while managing fresh political strain.
The American president has sharpened his criticism of NATO ahead of a leaders’ summit in Ankara, saying the United States should not keep carrying what he views as an unfair share of the alliance’s burden.
According to The Daily Mail, the US president posted a defence spending chart on Truth Social and wrote: “Ridiculous for the U.S.A. to continue along this one sided path when the relationship is not reciprocal. They were not there for us!!! President DJT.”
Article 5 explains the dispute
Trump’s complaint is aimed at NATO allies’ reluctance to back the ongoing US military campaign against Iran.
NATO is, however, a collective defence alliance, not a mechanism that automatically obliges members to support one ally’s offensive operations.
Article 5 applies when a member has suffered an armed attack and seeks collective support. Even then, NATO says each ally decides what action it considers necessary, and that assistance may or may not include armed force.
The rule has been invoked only once, after the September 11 attacks on the United States. In that case, allies provided measures such as intelligence sharing, overflight access, use of ports and airfields, naval deployments and NATO radar aircraft patrols over US airspace.
That helps explain why European NATO members were not automatically “there” for the United States. When Washington launched a military action that allies had not approved, Article 5 would not by itself require them to join the campaign.
Rutte pushes burden sharing
The Ankara summit is expected to focus heavily on defence spending, weapons production and continued support for Ukraine as Russia’s war continues.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has tried to reassure Washington that Europe and Canada are increasing their contributions.
“The summit next week will focus on turning extra spending into combat-ready capabilities, and significantly scaling up our defence industries,” he said, according to The Daily Mail.
“NATO is, and will always be, a transatlantic alliance but we need to rebalance it for the better,” he added.
The message is designed to answer one of Trump’s longest-running complaints: That European allies depend too heavily on American power while underinvesting in their own militaries.
Ankara summit faces strain
The meeting will bring together leaders including Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
According to the British newspaper, European officials hope Trump’s relationships with Erdogan and Rutte will help prevent public disputes from overshadowing the summit.
The talks come after tensions over Iran, Greenland and US military planning in Europe. Those issues have added political weight to a meeting that was already expected to test the alliance’s ability to speak with one voice.
One European diplomat told The Daily Mail: “The alliance is alive and kicking but a bit bruised.”
A senior NATO diplomat told the outlet: “And if something like that does occur, then we always have the ultimate marriage counsellor, Mark Rutte, to smooth things over.”
Sources: The Daily Mail, NATO
