After a tense, Trump-disrupted NATO summit, it may be the last one for a while

U.S. President Donald Trump closes his eyes as he and other NATO leaders wait for a group photo to be taken during the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, on July 8, 2026. Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images

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ANKARA, TURKEY — There were a few forced smiles and even fewer pleasantries at the NATO summit in Ankara on Wednesday as the leaders of the 32 allied nations prepared to wrap up their meeting and posed for the official family photo with the alliance’s secretary-general, Mark Rutte.

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The atmosphere was charged after a difficult summit. The U.S. restarted its war with Iran on Tuesday night, and President Donald Trump lambasted his NATO allies for sitting out the conflict. Before that, he had returned to openly musing about invading Greenland  and had once again insulted Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni.

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With so much tension, this may end up being the last NATO summit for a while, as even the secretary-general suggested there might not be one next year.

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Some think that might be for the best.

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Trump made it clear as soon as he arrived at the summit that he didn’t want to be there.

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“Frankly, if it weren’t held in Turkey, where my friend happens to be a very strong leader, a very strong person, it’s possible that I wouldn’t have attended,” he said Tuesday before a bilateral meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

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“I felt I had to attend because of the fact that he’s gone all out. It’s a big thing to have NATO come to Turkey, or any place else,” Trump added.

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The whirlwind two-day summit concluded on Wednesday with a short communiqué, a clear sign that consensus is hard to find in the alliance with Trump around. It did, however, “reaffirm” an “ironclad commitment” to NATO Article 5, holding that an attack on one ally is an attack on all, something Trump has previously sounded tentative about, as well as highlighting greater commitments by European members and Canada to play a more assertive role in the alliance with more robust defence funding.

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The Ankara Summit Declaration ends with allies thanking Turkey for their generous hospitality and looking forward to their next meeting at a date yet to be determined.

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Yet, Rutte would not confirm if there will definitely be a summit next year.

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“The next summit is in Albania, and, of course, we still have to decide on the exact timing,” he said during a closing press conference on Wednesday when asked if it would take place in 2027.

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Rutte has spent the last two years convincing Trump to not leave NATO with praise and at times flattery. He congratulated him for forcing Canada and European countries to step up their defence spending, saying many presidents before him never got it done.

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Trump still came to the summit saying he was “disappointed” with NATO over Iran and their resistance to his designs on Greenland. He refrained from repeating his mockery of Meloni at the summit itself, after posting online on Tuesday about needing a “restraining order” against her. Once in Turkey, he said he thinks “she’s a nice person, actually.”

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He simply said they have a bad relationship because “she refused to help us” in Iran. In June, at the G7, Trump had angered Meloni by claiming she had “begged” him for a photograph, which she denied.