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Donald Trump whipped between love and hate as a NATO summit in Turkey reached an impasse on Wednesday with allies – including the US president – standing firmly behind the Western military alliance’s defense clause.
Trump ended the 32-nation gathering with a tense news conference where he said he felt “a lot of love” for the other leaders in the room.
It was a surprising departure just hours after they criticized them for their defense spending and not supporting the US in its war with Iran.
There was no public outcry, as some leaders and observers feared.
However, there was a sense of muted anger as the leaders backed off – expressing gratitude to their Turkish hosts and saying they would meet again, but not saying when.
That was a change from years ago that left the next host country, Albania, in a bad position.
Trump was in the midst of renewing threats to Greenland to publicly call for Spain to boycott the trade to call Iran’s leadership “scum.”
At the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada is meeting its two percent GDP defense target – and will continue to increase spending. US President Donald Trump also said he would withdraw troops from Europe without being given control over Greenland.
The weird times didn’t end there.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan presented engraved rifles as a gift to fellow leaders, including Prime Minister Mark Carney. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke about the gift during his closing speech.
A spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada said the gun was “being handed over to the RCMP for disposal” and that the ammunition remained in Turkey.
Despite Trump’s tough talk, Carney said he believes the president is in good shape – both on Wednesday and at the leaders’ dinner on Tuesday.
That was Trump who appeared at the podium following a two-hour closed-door session.
“It was a great meeting, there was a lot of love in that room, a lot of unity,” Trump said shortly after a bilateral meeting with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Earlier in the day, Trump was clearly in the air, presenting a series of complaints – some old, some new, such as the fight against Spain, which has refused to comply with NATO spending terms and is strongly opposed to the US-Israeli war with Iran.
Prime Minister Mark Carney called Iran’s attacks on sites in Qatar and Saudi Arabia and threats to shipping ‘irresponsible.’ Speaking at a NATO event in Turkey, Carney said the US responded ‘appropriately’ as it looked to ‘stop this behaviour’ and set conditions aimed at re-establishing the ceasefire.
“Spain is a bad partner in NATO,” Trump said. “They don’t participate. They don’t pay. I don’t want anything to do with Spain. Please stop all trade with Spain, including tourism, OK?”
At one point, on Tuesday, he said the reason for his appearance was because of his friendship with the Turkish president.
The conference’s final statement reaffirmed the allies’ commitment to Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, which states that an attack by one is an attack on all.
After Trump had questioned whether the United States would honor the alliance’s commitments, he approved the move, something European leaders saw as a victory.
The timing of the next conference is unclear
However, the conference ended without concrete plans for the next one and many in European circles and officials suggested that some leaders were tired of haranguing and it might be time to return to the unusual calendar of meeting once every few years.
“NATO usually doesn’t have summits every year,” said Max Bergmann, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“I will not be surprised if this is the last NATO summit of the Trump administration, instead of President Trump. There is talk from the US side of trying to cancel the summit that was planned for next year in Albania. In fact, I think that is very reasonable. And I think that many European leaders would jump on that.”
There were reports published on Wednesday suggesting that the idea of postponing the next conference has been fully discussed.
Before this conference, the US sowed uncertainty, saying that it will not be able to make more forces of the NATO model if there is a war than before. It also reviews what troops are in the field and how much money Washington is contributing to keeping the alliance running.
The idea of less US involvement in Europe was difficult for some countries to understand.
“NATO was organized by the United States,” Bergmann said. “It’s basically built in the United States and has been for the last 77 years and that’s the way we wanted it.”
Bergmann said there are real political considerations that need to be taken into account every time European countries work together for collective security, in the absence of the United States.
“It’s a really important political question, one that Europeans are looking at right now.”
