The Summit Venue Is the Message: NATO Meets in Ankara With Erdogan Ascendant and Article 5 on the Table
NATO's most consequential summit in years is happening not in Brussels or Washington, but in Ankara — and that location tells you where power inside the alliance is shifting. With the US still entangled in its four-month war with Iran and a Ukraine aid package on the table, whether 32 countries can still speak with one voice matters directly to what America's military is asked to do, and where.
Bottom Line
The Ankara summit will almost certainly produce the unity photo and the ironclad language — that part is already written. The real test is whether the substance underneath holds: Ukraine funding actually delivered, burden-sharing disputes managed rather than detonated, and an alliance that can absorb both Trump's transactional style and Erdogan's rising influence without members quietly hedging their bets. This is a stress test, not a rupture — but stress tests are how you find the cracks.