{"id":7709,"date":"2026-07-06T16:35:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T16:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/07\/06\/is-nato-at-breaking-point-as-it-meets-in-turkiye\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T16:35:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T16:35:32","slug":"is-nato-at-breaking-point-as-it-meets-in-turkiye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/07\/06\/is-nato-at-breaking-point-as-it-meets-in-turkiye\/","title":{"rendered":"Is NATO at breaking point as it meets in Turkiye?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>NATO leaders gather in Ankara to tackle US-Europe tensions, defence gaps and support for Ukraine\u2019s military resilience.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>The war in Ukraine and the fall out from the Iran conflict are high on the NATO summit\u2019s agenda this week. But well before Secretary General Mark Rutte takes to the stage on Tuesday, NATO\u2019s most powerful individual had already set the tone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRidiculous for the U.S.A. to continue along this one sided path when the relationship is not reciprocal,\u201d US President Donald Trump wrote late last week. \u201cThey were not there for us!!!\u201d<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/29\/burnham-pledges-devolution-and-discipline-if-he-becomes-uk-prime-minister\">Burnham pledges devolution and discipline if he becomes UK prime minister<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/29\/marco-rubio-meets-libyan-commander-as-us-pushes-to-resolve-libya-crisis\">Marco Rubio meets Libyan commander as US pushes to resolve Libya crisis<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/economy\/2026\/6\/30\/uks-starmer-announces-300-billion-pound-defence-investment-plan\">UK\u2019s Starmer announces 300-billion-pound defence investment plan<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>As 32 leaders of the transatlantic body gather in Ankara for their two-day summit starting on Tuesday, the frosty relationship between the military alliance\u2019s members and the United States has emerged as the single biggest challenge overshadowing its future.<\/p>\n<p>NATO <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nato.int\/en\/news-and-events\/events\/2026\/07\/overview---2026-nato-summit-in-ankara-\">says<\/a> the summit will focus on three priorities: increasing defence investment, expanding Europe\u2019s defence industrial base and ensuring long-term military support for Ukraine. The meeting comes after allies pledged last year to spend the equivalent of five percent of GDP on defence, with European allies and Canada increasing defence investment by $139bn in nominal terms in 2025 alone.<\/p>\n<p>But talks will be overshadowed by Trump\u2019s threats to pull the US out of NATO and his plan to move troops and weapons out of Europe. On May 1 , the Pentagon <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/5\/1\/us-said-to-be-withdrawing-5000-troops-from-germany-over-iran-war-spat\">announced the withdrawal of about 5,000 troops<\/a> from Germany, following a \u201cthorough review of the Department\u2019s force posture in Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think the alliance is at a breaking point,\u201d said Ian Lesser, distinguished fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. \u201cBut it is entering a period of profound adjustment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2533\" data-end=\"2826\">Trump\u2019s scepticism towards NATO is not new, but the recent conflict with Iran has deepened tensions within the alliance. He has repeatedly criticised European allies for refusing to back Washington militarily, particularly by declining to participate in efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n<p>Another major source of friction is military spending. On Thursday, Trump again criticised the defence alliance saying it was \u201cridiculous\u201d that Washington spends more money on NATO than any other country to protect them \u201cwithout getting any benefit from doing so\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Experts say that while the US has changed its posture towards NATO, a US pullout from it is unlikely considering the legal and political challenges in doing so, especially as the country is preparing for key midterm elections which will determine who retains control of Congress.<\/p>\n<p>To formally withdraw, Trump would need a two-thirds majority in the US Senate or an act of Congress \u2013 scenarios that are unlikely to come to pass any time soon, with NATO still enjoying broad support among many legislators in both major parties in Washington. \u201cIt\u2019s in the US interest to stay engaged in Europe\u2019s security and maintain a key role in NATO \u2013 and this is a view shared on both aisles in Washington,\u201d said Lesser.<\/p>\n<p>Europeans have given up on restoring the alliance-based trust of decades past, but hope this summit will be an occasion for some planning, <a href=\"https:\/\/carnegieendowment.org\/emissary\/2026\/07\/nato-summit-ankara-united-states-europe-turkey-ukraine-alliance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> Sophia Besch, a senior fellow in the Europe Programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe one thing they still dare hope for is greater predictability. They have accepted that the American commitment to Europe is changing; what they want is a more orderly version of the transition,\u201d said Besch. \u201cThe fear behind this is well-founded: A botched handover from a US-led to a Europe-led NATO opens up a deterrence and defence gap.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite concerns over the potential reduction in US support, European allies would not be left defenceless. Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine exposed both the fragility of Europe\u2019s defence industrial base and the extent to which many NATO members depend on Washington for critical military capabilities. At the same time, repeated strains in transatlantic relations \u2013 from disputes within NATO to Trump\u2019s threats to seize Greenland \u2013 have reinforced the push for greater European strategic autonomy. As a result, defence spending among European allies <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consilium.europa.eu\/en\/policies\/defence-numbers\/\">rose<\/a> by 62 percent between 2020 and 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Yet major capability gaps remain. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iiss.org\/publications\/strategic-dossiers\/progress-and-shortfalls-in-europes-defence-an-assessment\/introduction\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">According to<\/a> the International Institute for Security Studies (IISS), European countries continue to rely heavily on the US for long-range strike capabilities, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, satellite-based assets, logistics and integrated air and missile defence.<\/p>\n<p>Closing those gaps will be a long-term challenge. The IISS estimates that replacing the most critical US conventional military capabilities would require roughly $1 trillion and could take a decade or more. Europe\u2019s defence industry also faces difficulties expanding production fast enough, while many armed forces continue to struggle with recruitment and retention.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NATO leaders gather in Ankara to tackle US-Europe tensions, defence gaps and support for Ukraine\u2019s military resilience. The war in Ukraine and the fall out from the Iran conflict are high on the NATO summit\u2019s agenda this week. But well before Secretary General Mark Rutte takes to the stage on Tuesday, NATO\u2019s most powerful individual &#8230; <a title=\"Is NATO at breaking point as it meets in Turkiye?\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/07\/06\/is-nato-at-breaking-point-as-it-meets-in-turkiye\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Is NATO at breaking point as it meets in Turkiye?\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}