“This is a tremendously successful summit.” So declared US President Donald Trump before departing the NATO Summit today. At the start of the two-day gathering in Ankara, the president delivered some post–Independence Day fireworks by criticizing allies on defense spending, again raising the prospect of seizing Greenland, and escalating the on-and-off conflict with Iran. But the meetings were cordial, and by the end, Trump was lauding NATO’s “unification.” In a brief communiqué, allies reaffirmed the Article 5 collective defense pledge and called on Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, while announcing fifty billion dollars in new defense procurement and eighty billion dollars more for Ukraine. Our alliance of experts contributed their reactions below.
TODAY’S EXPERT REACTION BROUGHT TO YOU BY
Jenna Ben-Yehuda: Executive vice president at the Atlantic Council and former US State Department official
Torrey Taussig (@torrey_taussig): Director of the Transatlantic Security Initiative in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, and former director for European affairs at the White House National Security Council
Andrew D’Anieri (@andrew_danieri): Associate director at the Eurasia Center
