Good morning readers.
Angela Skujins back on newsletter duties for this Thursday, where European leaders are steadily retreating to their capitals following a turbulent North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) annual summit in the Turkish capital. But they are not returning empty-handed.
Not only were the leaders in attendance gifted engraved pistols and live ammunition by host and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, they were also left to digest many proclamations by US President Donald Trump, NATO’s most powerful player.
Euronews’ NATO correspondent Shona Murray was reporting on-the-ground for the duration of the Ankara event, and says after five years of war on the European continent, and two years of rancour from a confrontational White House, it was a moment for Europe to prove it's serious about its own defence.
Eclipsed by Trump. This was quickly overshadowed by Trump threatening to cut trade with Spain over Madrid’s insistence to not raise defence spending to 5% of GDP, but also news that Ukraine would be granted an export licence to produce Patriot interceptors after years of lobbying.
