NATO summit ends amid widening US-Europe rift and internal divisions

The NATO summit officially concluded in Ankara, the capital of Türkiye on Wednesday. Although the summit ultimately reached a consensus, significant contradictions remain.

Among these, the most attention-grabbing was undoubtedly the rift between the US and the European allies. After landing in Ankara, US President Donald Trump once again launched a full-scale attack on European countries. He not only fiercely criticized the serious lag in European defense spending but also threatened to cut off all trade between the US and Spain.

Furthermore, Trump reiterated his demand for US "control" of Greenland, which is the autonomous territory of Denmark. The mutual distrust between the US and Europe was amplified at this summit.

Besides the US-EU discord, the summit's host, Türkiye, also issued a serious warning to Europe. In his speech, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged the EU to "avoid building defense infrastructure independent of NATO" and called on the EU not to exclude non-EU countries like Türkiye from the defense system. 

He warned that such European "self-reliance" would seriously threaten transatlantic security. 

However, Türkiye's concerns did not receive a response. The final joint statement only stated that "European allies will cooperate with Canada and the United States to assume their defense responsibilities."

External contradictions abound, while internal "fighting" cannot be ignored either. Although the summit barely passed a 70-billion-euro European aid plan for Ukraine, European countries had clearly refused to contribute before the summit. At the summit, Bulgarian Prime Minister bluntly stated that Bulgaria had lost all its military aid capacity and had no surplus resources to assist Ukraine.

Regarding NATO's 5% of GDP defense spending target, some countries had previously drafted specific budget increase plans. Experts point out that blindly expanding the military will not only fail to alleviate the security anxieties of the European public but also force them to foot the bill.

At the press conference after the summit, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte tried his utmost to present a "united" NATO. Yet analysts said NATO still has a long way to go to truly bridge the gaps between its various members.