As the two-day North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit starts in Ankara, Turkiye, on Tuesday, the internal fractures within the transatlantic alliance are already apparent. Just days prior to the summit, US President Donald Trump took to social media to describe the relationship between the United States and the other NATO members as “ridiculous” and “not reciprocal”.

His repeated complaints of the US’ NATO allies free-riding on defense issues and his threats to reconsider the US’ security commitments have cast a shadow of uncertainty over a summit that was supposed to showcase unity.

At last year’s summit in The Hague, almost all member states — under US pressure — agreed to increase defense spending to 5 percent of GDP by 2035; a military spending goal unprecedented since the Cold War. Under the agreement, 3.5 percent would be spent on “core defense” and 1.5 percent on security-related initiatives. The Ankara summit will supposedly review the implementation of this commitment.

Many NATO member states have acknowledged that they face........

© The Frontier Post (Editorial)