This article is part of a series featuring Atlantic Council experts’ analysis and recommendations on the key challenges facing allies at the upcoming NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey, and beyond.
WASHINGTON—Recent years have seen a whipsaw of NATO engagement with its neighbors to the south. After pressure from Italy and other allies on the Alliance’s southern flank, NATO agreed to the Southern Neighborhood Action Plan (SNAP) at the 2024 Washington summit. At the 2025 Hague summit, however, NATO adopted no significant new measures in this area.
The upcoming Ankara summit is the perfect occasion for NATO to deepen engagement with its southern neighborhood in a more consistent way going forward. Host nation Turkey is perhaps the NATO ally most affected by instability and insecurity in the southern neighborhood, and it could use its role to push for the Alliance to engage more with the South.
The Turkish government has served as a bridge between NATO and the South previously, including at the last summit Turkey hosted, in 2004. This gathering resulted in the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative with four new Gulf partners for NATO. Recent instability in NATO’s southern neighborhood should be concerning to all members of the Alliance, and spotlighting allies’ shared interest in the region would be consistent with the Turkish government’s agenda of promoting Alliance unity at the Ankara summit.
