The NATO 2026 summit will be held on July 7-8 at the Beştepe Presidential Compound in Ankara, Türkiye. It will be the second time Türkiye will host a NATO summit. The first was in Istanbul in 2004.
As we all know, NATO summits bring together allied leaders to make decisions on important issues facing the alliance and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte says they will unveil billions in defense deals.
Another point is that this year’s summit holds additional significance for Türkiye, as U.S. President Donald Trump stated that he will make Türkiye “extremely happy."
According to unconfirmed reports and the current weather trend on "planet Trump," the U.S. government is finally going to deliver the 116 18 F-35A CTOL fighter jets that Türkiye already paid for back in 2019. In other words, if Türkiye bought gold bullions for the $1.25 billion down payment it made then, it would have the whole Lockheed Martin Co. Inc. today.
According to confirmed reports, the Trump administration has also formally notified Congress of its intention to sell 80 jet engines worth more than $700 million to Türkiye, which will make the serial production of the Turkish Kaan warplanes possible.
But the more important issue than those already outmoded F-35s and jet engines Türkiye already manufactures itself is this: The U.S. is getting ready to deliver the reins of NATO to Türkiye.
Let’s put it this way: Trump is not only going to have his typical round of insulting European leaders next week in Ankara, but he is also going to carry out a wholesale restructuring of the transatlantic relationship. Acknowledging the terms that EU countries are willing to accept regarding the settlement of the debts they have owed the U.S. since the end of World War II, and accepting their refusal to increase their national defense budgets, he’ll call it quits. All that Oval Office claptrap was not for nothing.
In short, he will tell Europeans to do “what the hell they want,” expressing strong frustration. He will then rush and go back to the election centers in those states, which are primarily important for a Republican victory in 120 days. In his colossal self-trust and ennoblement of political and managerial abilities, he believes he can turn the tide around and make the Make America Great Again (MAGA) crowd understand that it is not Israel, Russia or China that he wants to make great, but the good-old U.S. of A! But still the apple of old and new conservatives’ eye, he cannot leave NATO flat-footed. So, he is supposed to make a departing bequest.
Again, according to unconfirmed reports and the current atmospheric circulations on plant Trump, he is going to recommend that Europeans pass the baton to Türkiye and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
If you pay attention to the words Trump said, speaking alongside Rutte, he emphasized Türkiye's status within the alliance, stating: “Look, he's (President Erdoğan) a member of NATO. Some people don't consider himself (a NATO member), but he really is. He's a strong member of NATO.”
Trump said he would not attend if any other country hosted the NATO summit, but, out of respect to Erdoğan, he is traveling to Ankara. Trump, on a roll, said, “People don't know how big Türkiye is in terms of the military despite the fact that Ankara maintaining a very strong force equipped with substantial American hardware.”
Too much praise heaped on Türkiye must have made the NATO secretary-general feel that the “other” Europeans also needed a little citing, so he said, “At the summit, leaders all continue to make NATO a stronger, fairer and more lethal alliance, ready to respond to the critical challenges to our security.”
Yeah, sure; they will. Won’t they? But the “boss” wants Türkiye to be the one to keep his seat warm. But the question, a hypothetical one though, is what sort of NATO will it be, if we are going to take NATO over.
Will it be pushing the idea of a European Army against the Russian Federation? Will it continue to drag the war in Ukraine against Russia, the owner of which had already taken a ride off into the sunset. Will NATO not get a word in edgewise against the genocidal regime in Israel? Will it allow individual members to carry on with their endless love of Zionism and unending moral obligation emanating from their genocide, i.e., the Holocaust, without even paying lip service to the memories of the killed and ethnically cleansed Muslims?
I am sure the Europeans are perfectly aware that neither their own war preparations nor Trump’s efforts to fan the nascent flames of the Europeans’ traditional “Russophobia” is going to prevent Türkiye and Russia from speaking to each other like two adult nations. Ankara sees Moscow as essential to any serious regional security discussion and knows Russia should be part of the diplomatic games played with a pragmatic approach.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is a modern, pragmatic world leader who can engage with any country that is willing to resolve any old or new issues with Moscow. As any serious statesperson would do, Putin gives assurances after assurances and counts reasons after reasons that Russia will not attack Germany. These genuine strategic arguments are not part of a broader information campaign. If you break down Putin's reasoning about Germany's concerns, you find out that Russia has long ago left the old Soviet concerns about NATO. But behind Germany’s motives are those old mindsets NATO had against the Soviets.
We also need to analyze what that mindset is about. Is it really NATO or European goons or simply Rutte working up his own concerns? NATO is melting down under Rutte’s watch. The U.S. is now seeking a new security architecture for Europe. That is enough to make Rutte stand on his head and bust not one but almost all the blood vessels on his forehead when he screams, “We are ready, Vladimir!”
Speaking at the Atlantic Council policy institute on the final day of his visit to Washington in advance of the summit in Ankara, addressing the Russian leader directly, Rutte said: “Vladimir, we will defend ourselves.”
The only problem is Tovarishch Vlad not listening because shouting at somebody is not the way to engage with them in a formal and respectful dialogue. Putin has been watching how the Europeans promise to invest billions in defense deals, but none of those materialize, and no European government ever implements those commitments. Western Europe has stopped talking to Russia; they have no idea what the New Russia is all about. Clinging to old illusions about the Soviets does not instill even an iota of fear in Ankara. The idead that “Uncle Stalin is going to gobble Anatolia and the Straits up” does not work on Türkiye anymore. Türkiye is not blinded by the destructive ideologies of the U.S. or EU and can chart its own political course.
Türkiye is positioned as the leading intermediary between Moscow and Kyiv. After assuming the role Trump is said to bestow on it, Türkiye is going to make all Europeans appreciate the need to keep Putin in play. You cannot win if you don’t speak to your interlocutors.
