Before the NATO summit with US President Donald Trump, member countries will announce defense deals worth billions of dollars in the Turkish capital Ankara on Tuesday. The purpose of these agreements is to show that European countries are now spending more on their security and are fulfilling the long-standing demand of America. These defense deals will be announced in NATO’s Defense Industry Forum. After this, Trump will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and then attend the summit with other NATO leaders. The summit will begin with dinner on Tuesday evening.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that the countries of Europe have made a surprising increase in the defense budget. The biggest reason for this is the increased security threat after Russia’s attack on Ukraine in 2022. The second reason is the constant pressure from Trump. Trump has been saying for a long time that European countries should spend less on America and more on themselves for their security. According to Rutte, in 2025, European NATO member countries and Canada will spend $90 billion more on defense than in 2024. With this their total defense expenditure increased to more than 570 billion dollars. This means that defense expenditure increased by about 20% in just one year.
Trump had hinted at withdrawing from NATO
In recent months, Trump again criticized NATO countries. He says that European countries did not fully support America during the conflict with Iran. He even hinted that America could exit NATO or, if necessary, would not abide by the organization’s Collective Security Treaty. However, European countries say that they had allowed America to use their airbases and airspace. They also say that they were not even taken into confidence beforehand about the impact of the war on their economy.
America is reducing troops from Europe
Meanwhile, America has started withdrawing some troops from Europe, cutting its military resources for NATO defense plans and starting a six-month review of its military presence in Europe. This also includes aircraft carriers, fighter jets, drones and air refueling aircraft.
European countries hope that Turkish President Erdoğan and NATO chief Mark Rutte will use their good relations with Trump to make the summit a success. However, given Trump’s strained relations with Greenland, Iran and some leaders, he is not completely sure of any outcome.
Netherlands will announce a deal worth 3 billion euros
NATO has not yet made public the complete details of defense deals. But Netherlands Defense Minister Dylan Yesilgoes said that his country will announce defense agreements worth more than 3 billion euros. These include partnerships related to air defense with Belgium and naval ships with Britain. Apart from this, according to Reuters report, NATO can also announce the purchase of GlobalEye surveillance aircraft of Swedish company Saab in place of its old American AWACS surveillance aircraft. This is being considered a big step towards modernizing NATO’s military capability.
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