Ankara summit: NATO’s great success or just damage control? | Gerlinde Niehus

The NATO summit in Ankara concluded with boastful declarations of unity from Secretary General Mark Rutte and a promise of a Patriot missile manufacturing license for Ukraine from U.S. President Donald Trump. An all-around success! But was it?

“I think it was, in many ways, a summit of damage limitation. So it was framed as a moment for NATO to demonstrate unity and progress on existing commitments (...) and not as a venue for addressing urgent strategic issues,” said Gerlinde Niehus, former NATO Deputy Director for Defense and Security Cooperation, pointing out the failure to define Ukraine's end state for victory, a containment strategy for Russia, and to improve the NATO-EU partnership.

Niehus said that the topics on the agenda were picked in a way to ensure they were “largely uncontroversial with Trump,” such as progress in increasing defense spending and production, as well as procurement, part of which would also benefit U.S. companies. At the same time, she pointed out that Trump still managed to stir up controversy of his own, lambasting Spain for its low defense spending, the allies as a whole for not lending him support in his war against Iran, and bringing up the matter of sovereignty over Greenland again.

Join TVP World’s Aaron Dahmen and his guest, as they explore how much weight should be given to Trump’s declarations, how much the €70 billion pledge for Ukraine actually is worth, and whether the summit’s outcome is anything Vladimir Putin should be worried about.

Chapters:
00:00 - NATO’s Ankara summit as damage limitation
01:35 - Trump’s shifting tone and European strategic autonomy
02:45 - Ukraine’s gains and the meaning of Trump's Patriots pledge
04:37 - Messaging to Putin and Trump’s view of Ukraine
06:10 - Putin’s reading of the summit
07:56 - Ukraine’s place on Trump’s agenda
09:18 - The summit’s limited ambitions

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