Updated · European Council on Foreign Relations · Jul 16
Trump Leaves NATO Summit Without Troop Cuts as Allies Embrace 5% Defense Target
Updated
Updated · European Council on Foreign Relations · Jul 16
Trump Leaves NATO Summit Without Troop Cuts as Allies Embrace 5% Defense Target
3 articles · Updated · European Council on Foreign Relations · Jul 16
Summary
Trump ended the Ankara summit without announcing any major US troop withdrawals from Europe or a move to quit NATO, easing the alliance’s biggest immediate fear.
European leaders had tightly managed the meeting and lavished praise on Trump because they feared he could use the summit to undermine NATO after months of anxiety over US retrenchment.
Ukraine also won a concrete pledge: Trump said Kyiv would get a license to manufacture Patriot air-defense missiles domestically, alongside unusually warm words for Volodymyr Zelensky.
The summit still exposed NATO’s deeper problem: allies celebrated a 5% of GDP defense goal by 2035, but critics argue the figure was designed to placate Trump rather than close real capability gaps.
That leaves Europe facing a broader strategic test—whether to keep relying on US guarantees and weapons or build the industrial, military and energy capacity to defend itself.