{"id":52608,"date":"2026-07-09T15:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T15:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/52608\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T15:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T15:14:11","slug":"trump-targets-spain-nato-backs-ukraine-is-the-alliance-still-united-nato-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/52608\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump targets Spain, NATO backs Ukraine: Is the alliance still united? | NATO News"},"content":{"rendered":"

NATO concluded a two-day summit in Turkiye\u2019s Ankara on Wednesday afternoon, with members discussing defence budgets and support for Ukraine<\/a>, but with simultaneous talk of unity and discord underscoring an uncertain path ahead for an alliance that has been the bedrock of the West\u2019s security architecture for more than 75 years.<\/p>\n

While allies appeared aligned on several key issues, United States President Donald Trump used the summit to criticise NATO partners<\/a>, including Spain, over defence spending, and imposed a trade embargo on Spain.<\/p>\n

Despite this, Trump described the summit as \u201ctremendously successful\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was amazing, actually,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cThe unity in that room was incredible, really a love, it was sort of pretty wild.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are key developments at the summit \u2014 some demonstrating consensus, others revealing fissures.<\/p>\n

Leaders agree to increase defence spending, Ukraine aid<\/p>\n

In their summit declaration, NATO leaders reaffirmed their \u201cironclad commitment\u201d to the mutual assistance clause enshrined in Article 5 of the alliance treaty.<\/p>\n

In earlier years, that commitment was a given, its mention in a summit declaration a pro forma nod to the founding document of the alliance. But Trump has repeatedly questioned the worth of the alliance, accused NATO members of \u201cnot being there\u201d for the US when it needed them \u2014 such as during the war on Iran this year \u2014 and left open the possibility that Washington might not come to the defence of allies if they come under attack.<\/p>\n

Against that backdrop, the summit declaration would serve as a reassuring promise from the US, by far the world\u2019s largest and most powerful military.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, European leaders showcased their surging defence spending at the summit as they looked to convince Trump they are making good on a pledge to ramp up budgets and take more responsibility for their own security.<\/p>\n

The commitments included \u201cmore than $50 billion in new procurements\u201d, according to the NATO declaration.<\/p>\n

Trump has long said Europe should spend more on defence, and his administration is pushing Europeans to take primary responsibility for the conventional defence of the continent.<\/p>\n

However, NATO\u00a0data shows that only five of its 32 members are projected to meet the alliance\u2019s goal of spending 3.5 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on core defence in 2026.<\/p>\n

At the summit, 32 NATO heads of state also pledged 70 billion euros ($80bn) in assistance to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NATO member states have generated a show of unity over Ukraine on this occasion. They have all rallied to the notion that Ukraine is successfully stemming Russia\u2019s creeping advance,\u201d Jolyon Howorth, emeritus professor of European politics at the University of Bath, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there is little unity, either within Europe or between the Atlantic partners, as to the way forward with Ukraine. That is unlikely to change even when Trump finally leaves the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump cuts off trade with Spain, threatens Greenland<\/p>\n

Trump spoke of \u201clove\u201d in the room, but there was no love lost for Spain, as he issued an order for a trade embargo<\/a> on Wednesday. He asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to \u201ccut off all trade \u2026 including visits\u201d with the country amid tensions over defence spending.<\/p>\n

The US Departments of the Treasury and Commerce and the Office of the US Trade Representative will work to present Trump with \u201ca menu of Spanish products that may be embargoed in the coming days\u201d, a US official told the Reuters news agency. The comments suggest a trade ban could be partial.<\/p>\n

Also on Wednesday, Trump told reporters: \u201cI\u2019m not happy with NATO because of what they did with Greenland, and I\u2019m not happy with NATO because of the fact that they didn\u2019t want to help us with the number one state sponsor of terror, that\u2019s Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s escalating attacks on Spain, coupled with his renewed threats to acquire Greenland \u2013 an autonomous territory of Denmark \u2013 are exposing possible fractures in NATO\u2019s cohesion.<\/p>\n

\u201cNATO has always struggled with the issue of unity. Its member states have different interests arising from history and geography,\u201d Howorth said. \u201cSpain and Denmark are currently \u2013 for different reasons \u2013 in Trump\u2019s crosshairs. This is a serious problem for the Alliance\u2019s unity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump lifting sanctions off Turkiye<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Trump said on Tuesday he would lift sanctions on Turkiye and would soon decide on resuming F-35 jet sales.<\/p>\n

The statement came as Trump met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the summit in Ankara.<\/p>\n

The pivot came after the US booted Turkiye from the F-35 programme after Ankara acquired Russian S-400 air defence systems in 2019. It also imposed sanctions under the Countering America\u2019s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to be taking the sanctions off,\u201d Trump told reporters.<\/p>\n

Sitting next to Erdogan, Trump said he would soon determine the sale of F-35s to Turkiye.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a decision we\u2019re going to make \u2026 it\u2019s a great plane, the best plane by far, and it\u2019s certainly something we will consider,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

His meeting with Erdogan came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has increasingly pressured the US not to resume F-35 sales to Turkiye.<\/p>\n

Besides the Turkiye development, Trump also approved the sale of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Germany, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday, despite doubts that a planned deployment of the missiles would go ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe summit was considered a success just because in the end Trump didn\u2019t cause any major disruption, which goes to show how low the bar is set as long as he is in the White House,\u201d Sven Biscop, the director of the Brussels-based think tank Egmont Institute, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

UK-Netherlands maritime partnership<\/p>\n

British and Dutch forces will be equipped with new amphibious transport ships under a 2.4 billion-pound ($3.2bn) maritime partnership signed, according to the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

\u201cCombining the UK\u2019s industrial expertise with The Netherlands\u2019 design and sea-faring experience to deliver first-rate platforms for our elite amphibious forces, this partnership will strengthen NATO,\u201d British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who attended the NATO summit, said in a statement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

How united is NATO overall?<\/p>\n

\u201cAbove all, the \u2018unity\u2019 between the US and Europe has always depended crucially on the Europeans believing and trusting that the US would stand with them in the event of an existential threat,\u201d Howorth said.<\/p>\n

He added that Trump has \u201cknowingly destroyed\u201d this trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever he may say at any given moment, nobody can believe that he will not subsequently change his mind. That unpredictability further undermines unity. The challenge now is for the Europeans to remain united in their quest for autonomy from the US through and via NATO.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biscop said that a good conclusion from the summit is the indication that Europe and Canada could play a stronger role in the alliance moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Europeans now act on this and build military autonomy, a rebalanced NATO resting on two pillars [one US, one European including Turkiye and Canada] can remain viable for the long time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NATO concluded a two-day summit in Turkiye\u2019s Ankara on Wednesday afternoon, with members discussing defence budgets and support…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[194,66,22602,865,202,204,305,273,17,2251,2879,26,1180,2363],"class_list":["post-52608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-donald-trump","tag-europe","tag-explainer","tag-germany","tag-middle-east","tag-military","tag-nato","tag-news","tag-spain","tag-turkey","tag-ukraine","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada","tag-weapons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}