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The upcoming NATO summit in Ankara will provide an opportunity for allies to assess progress on commitments made at the 2025 summit in The Hague.
Including increased defense investment and continued support for Ukraine, a NATO official told Türkiye Today exclusively on Wednesday, Feb. 25.
"The Summit will provide an opportunity for Allies to take stock of the progress in implementing commitments made at the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague," the NATO official said.
"To ensure that NATO is ready and able to deter and defend, Allies are increasing their investment in defense to deliver the capabilities we need, strengthening the defense industry on both sides of the Atlantic, and continuing vital support to Ukraine, whose security is directly linked to ours," the official noted.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced on 20 August 2025 that the 2026 NATO Summit will be held on July 7-8 at the Bestepe Presidential Complex in Ankara.
"I want to thank Türkiye for hosting this important meeting. Türkiye has been a strong NATO ally for more than 70 years, making invaluable contributions to our shared security," Rutte stated.
"At our next summit, leaders will continue to make NATO a stronger, fairer, and more lethal alliance, ready to respond to the critical challenges to our security," he added.
This is the second time Türkiye will host a NATO summit.
The first was held in Istanbul in 2004, during which seven new member countries, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia, were admitted to the alliance.
The summit is expected to focus primarily on implementing decisions taken at last year's summit in The Hague, where member states pledged to allocate 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) annually by 2035 to meet both core defense requirements and broader security needs.
Strengthening defense industry capacity on both sides of the Atlantic and sustaining support for Ukraine, whose security NATO considers directly linked to that of the alliance, are also expected to feature prominently on the Ankara summit agenda.
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