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A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers will travel to Türkiye this week for the 2026 NATO Summit in Ankara, with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) leading a delegation that will press allied nations on defense commitments and push to elevate Ukraine's standing within the alliance.
Shaheen, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and co-chair of the Senate NATO Observer Group, will be joined by Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), along with Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio).
The delegation is expected to meet with heads of state and foreign counterparts, including NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, and will participate in the summit's Defense Industry Forum.
The lawmakers plan to stress NATO's role in collective defense and regional security, while drawing attention to increased defense spending across allied nations, a priority that has defined much of the alliance's internal debate in recent years.
NATO members have faced sustained pressure, particularly from Washington, to meet and exceed the alliance's defense spending benchmarks.
On Ukraine, Shaheen intends to urge allied governments to return Kyiv to the top of NATO's agenda, including by expanding military assistance and intensifying economic pressure on Moscow.
She is also expected to signal that Congress could pursue additional sanctions against Russia if the Trump administration declines to take further measures of its own.
The Ankara summit marks a personal milestone for Shaheen, who is completing her tenure as co-chair of the Senate NATO Observer Group.
Her office said she will use the occasion to reaffirm that "Congress' bipartisan commitment to NATO and Ukraine endures beyond any one Administration or political season in Washington."
Following the NATO summit, Shaheen, Durbin, and Turner are scheduled to travel to Budapest on Wednesday.
Meetings are planned for the following day with representatives of Hungary's new government as well as civil society leaders, rounding out a diplomatic swing that spans two of the alliance's more strategically complex member states.
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