<\/p>\n
Two men walk past the NATO logo during the NATO Defense Industry Forum at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, July 7, 2026.<\/p>\n
Hussein Malla\/AP Photo\/Hussein Malla<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Bestepe Presidential Palace during a formal welcome for the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, July 7, 2026.<\/p>\n
Alex Brandon\/AP Photo\/Alex Brandon<\/p>\n
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte speaks at the opening of the NATO Defense Industry Forum on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, July 7, 2026.<\/p>\n
Hussein Malla\/AP Photo\/Hussein Malla<\/p>\n
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, center, poses with NATO defense ministers and industry representatives during the opening of the NATO Defense Industry Forum on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, July 7, 2026.<\/p>\n
Hussein Malla\/AP Photo\/Hussein Malla<\/p>\n
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy looks out from his car window as he arrives for the NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (Metin Akta\u015f, Pool Photo via AP)<\/p>\n
Metin Akta\u015f\/Metin Akta\u00c5\u009f\/Pool Anadolu via AP<\/p>\n
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) \u2014 Denmark\u2019s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Wednesday rejected President Donald Trump’s renewed demands that the U.S. should take control of Greenland from NATO ally Denmark, saying that \u201cGreenland is of course not for sale.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe hope that all, including all allies, will respect the Greenland people’s right for self-determination,\u201d Frederiksen said ahead of a meeting of the leaders of NATO member countries in Turkey. \u201cWe are sovereign states and we need everybody to respect our territorial integrity and our sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Trump reopened old wounds over Greenland on the eve of the meeting by insisting that the United States should control the semiautonomous island. NATO is founded on the principle that its 32 members will defend each others\u2019 territory, not threaten to seize it.<\/p>\n
Frederiksen said Denmark is \u201cready to defend every inch of NATO including our own territory\u201d in the event of an attack, and would rely on NATO allies to honor their commitment to defend each other.<\/p>\n
Iceland\u2019s Prime Minister, Kristr\u00fan Frostad\u00f3ttir, said Greenland \u201cbelongs to the people of Greenland,\u201d and called for unity among the NATO allies in the face of external dangers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have threats coming from outside the alliance,\u201d Frostad\u00f3ttir said. “Russia is their biggest threat when it comes to these NATO allies. We need to focus on us and how we stick together.\u201d<\/p>\n
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NATO chief backs latest US strikes on Iran<\/p>\n
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said from Ankara on Wednesday that he believes the United States is fully committed to the military organization, and praised Trump for taking forceful action against Iran overnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was absolutely necessary because when you have a ceasefire and Iran is basically violating a ceasefire, we see what happened yesterday,\u201d Rutte said of the series of U.S. strikes on Iran after Tehran struck three merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it is totally crucial that the U.S. forcefully react,\u201d Rutte said.<\/p>\n
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The U.S. strikes on Iran, as well as the revoking of a license allowing it to sell its oil on global markets, were retaliation, and underscored the fragility of an interim deal to end months of fighting between the two countries.<\/p>\n
Trump launched the attacks shortly after leaving a dinner hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and so far has not spoken about the strikes.<\/p>\n
It is rare for U.S. presidents to launch military action while outside the U.S., though in 2011 former President Barack Obama authorized strikes in Libya while on a trip to Brazil.<\/p>\n
The meeting in Ankara of NATO\u2019s 32 member countries was meant to focus on progress made toward meeting the alliance’s spending targets.<\/p>\n
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Rutte said U.S. demands for all allies to spend the same in terms of gross domestic product \u201cis completely fair,\u201d and noted that Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Denmark and Greece are already investing more.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe commitment is there, no doubt,\u201d Rutte said before chairing the summit of NATO leaders, but noted that the Trump administration expects \u201cthe Europeans and Canadian will equalize their spending with the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
NATO leaders sought to show Trump they were boosting defense<\/p>\n
NATO summits are designed to be a show of unity aimed at deterring any potential adversary \u2014 a resolve more important than ever as Russia continues to wage war on Ukraine, and concerns mount that other European countries could be targeted.<\/p>\n
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In an attempt last month to mollify the U.S. leader, Rutte went to Washington to hail the \u201cTrump Trillion\u201d \u2014 the $1.2 trillion that European allies and Canada have added to defense spending since Trump came to power in 2017.<\/p>\n
Yet Trump has demanded \u201cloyalty\u201d and branded NATO a \u201cpaper tiger\u201d after some allies refused to grant open access to their bases for U.S. forces to attack Iran.<\/p>\n
As leaders converged on Ankara, Rutte hosted a \u201cbig reveal\u201d event to showcase the many deals planned for the increased spending \u2014 much of it to be spent on U.S. companies, creating thousands of jobs for Americans.<\/p>\n
NATO diplomats and officials had hoped that Trump would take the win, but judging by some of his remarks since arriving in Turkey, they are in for yet another dressing down.<\/p>\n
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NATO braces for Trump\u2019s grievances<\/p>\n
Trump has long argued that the U.S. carries more than its fair share of the defense burden for NATO. At last year’s summit, the allies had agreed to invest 5% of their gross domestic product on defense \u2014 3.5% on their defense budgets and 1.5% on roads, bridges and ports so troops and equipment can move faster in times of conflict.<\/p>\n
New figures released by NATO on Tuesday showed that Slovenia, Belgium, Spain and the Czech Republic could be in hot water with the Trump administration as they struggle to meet the alliance\u2019s old target of investing 2% of their GDP.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration wants to see a more lean and lethal \u201cNATO 3.0,\u201d with Europe taking responsibility for its own security, including Ukraine, with conventional weapons while America would continue to provide its nuclear umbrella.<\/p>\n
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However, the Pentagon has launched a 6-month review of U.S. military presence in Europe, leaving allies to seek clarity on just how deeply Trump intends to cut U.S. force numbers.<\/p>\n
The drawdowns could depend on how fast the European allies increase defense spending, and whether they are prepared to allow greater use of their bases.<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s Zelenskyy pushes for NATO entry<\/p>\n
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a fresh appeal Tuesday for Ukraine to be allowed to join the alliance, saying Ukrainian armed forces are highly experienced and would only boost NATO\u2019s defense capabilities.<\/p>\n
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Zelenskyy, who is expected to meet with Trump in Ankara on Wednesday, highlighted Ukraine\u2019s adaptability and its ability to strike deep inside Russia, hit Moscow\u2019s oil refineries and other energy targets. He said Ukraine\u2019s armed forces are \u201celiminating\u201d on average 30,000 Russian troops every month.<\/p>\n
Concern has been mounting among some northern, central and eastern European countries that Russia might be preparing a hybrid attack \u2014 a combination of conventional warfare with tactics like cyberattacks \u2014 on the continent as Russian President Vladimir Putin struggles to secure victory in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Trump will also meet with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former insurgent who led the offensive that unseated autocrat Bashar Assad in December 2024. Despite having once been an al-Qaida fighter, al-Sharaa has won Trump\u2019s backing as he seeks to rebuild Syria and restore its long-shattered ties with the West.<\/p>\n
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Trump has repeatedly suggested that al-Sharaa would do a better job of rooting out Hezbollah in Lebanon than the Israeli army, raising alarms in Lebanon and Israel alike. The Syrian leader has said he has no interest in doing so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two men walk past the NATO logo during the NATO Defense Industry Forum at the NATO summit in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3857,3607,3862,535,57,534,156,299,536,4235,1827,1828,1825,2483,2300,278,466,437,438],"class_list":["post-7070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-ahmad-al-sharaa","tag-barack-obama","tag-bashar-assad","tag-denmark","tag-donald-trump","tag-greenland","tag-iran","tag-mark-rutte","tag-mette-frederiksen","tag-nato-trump-iran-ukraine-turkey","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-32502-ap-online-europe-news","tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan","tag-turkey","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}