NATO’s Ankara Summit: Implications for Türkiye

NATO’s Ankara Summit: Implications for Türkiye

Rıfat Öncel, Researcher 

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The Ankara Summit, held during a critical period of NATO’s adaptation, served to assess the progress made on the Alliance’s current goals and to identify priorities for the next chapter. It has important implications for allies, including Türkiye.

Defense and Deterrence Measures

One of the most important issues at the summit was the strengthening of defense and deterrence. As the Summit Declaration argued Russia’s threat to Euro-Atlantic security and stability was once again characterized as “long-term,” as it had been the previous year. Thus, the allies kept the consensus on the direct threat Russia poses. Countering this requires bigger and stronger militaries. Accordingly, the allies assessed the progress on the defense spending targets designated at the last year’s Hague Summit when they argued that defense spending should reach 5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2035.

Alongside with this, the major expectation for the last few years has been the fact that non-US allies must take lead in boosting defense spending.  Dissatisfaction on the US side regarding this issue had been one of the main factors raising tensions in transatlantic relations over the past year. European allies and Canada made efforts to demonstrate that they were shouldering the burden of increased spending in particular. In this regard, the Summit Declaration noted that Europe and Canada increased their defense spending by $139 billion in 2025. It was also emphasized that these financial resources were used for “core” defense spending. Within the 5% target set at The Hague, 3.5 points were designated for core spending and 1.5 points for defense-related spending. Thus, the language used in the declaration was intended to demonstrate that allies were making an effort to strengthen their combat capabilities.

Boosted Support for Ukraine

NATO allies have always played a crucial role on the course of the Russia-Ukraine War. 99 percent of the military assistance to Ukraine came from NATO allies till this day. Although with the new US administration taking office in January 2025 put the continuation of this aid at risk, NATO developed new mechanisms to keep the supplies. For instance, last summer, NATO and the US established Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) to keep the supply of critical US military equipment to Ukraine by the finance of European allies, Canada, and even NATO partners.

Ankara Summit, once again demonstrated the NATO commitments to Ukraine’s security and its warfighting ability. As Russia was defined a long-term threat, the allies argued that Ukraine is contributing to the Euro-Atlantic security by resisting to Russian aggression. With this reasoning, allies committed €70 billion worth of weapons aid for 2026 and set this figure as a floor for the following year as well. It appears that, as has largely been the case so far, this funding will primarily be provided by Europe and Canada, since the EU’s Ukraine Support Loan is expected to play a leading role. Under the loan approved in April 2026, the EU agreed to provide Ukraine with €30 billion in macroeconomic assistance and €60 billion worth of military equipment aid for 2026 and 2027.

Transatlantic Defense-Industrial Base as a Strategic Element

It is now widely accepted that the contemporary wars require mass production as the extensive use of several types of drones, missiles, and artillery ammunition have demonstrated for the past years. Accordingly, Ankara Summit Declaration announced that defense procurement worth more than $50 billion would be carried out. In addition, as expected, it was stated that efforts would be made to increase defense industry production, accelerate innovation, and remove restrictions on defense trade among allies.

Allies announced NATO Front Door for Industry and NATO Engine initiatives which meant that the Alliance is taking new steps to further boost defense-industrial production as well as making it without barriers among allies. NATO also announced new key critical procurement including strengthening Allince’s tanker fleet, maritime surveillance, and airborne early warning capabilities. As the extensive use of drones characterizes the contemporary conflicts, NATO launched Drone Edge initiative worth $40 billion for developing, and producing counter-UAS (unmanned aerial systems) capabilities. Similarly, allies agreed to expand the number of drone pilots to fivefold by the end of 2027, indicating the critical importance attached to this area.

In conclusion, Ankara Summit was a key step within Alliance’s adaptation process to changing security environment. The defense spending targets, support to Ukraine, and boosted defense-industrial cooperation among allies are compatible with Türkiye’s foreign and security policy objectives. Regarding spending targets, Türkiye is expected to reach the designated 5 percent targets before the targeted deadline, and Türkiye has one of the major proponents of the elimination of barriers in defense-industrial trade among allies. Similarly, it has been Türkiye’s position that Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty must be preserved, including Crimea. Overall, Ankara Summit served as a forum for allies to mitigate the effects of the transatlantic divide, and focus more on the deeper defense cooperation which in the end strengthen Allied defense and deterrence.