Overview
- President Donald Trump, who arrived in Ankara on Tuesday, opened the NATO summit by publicly accusing Britain, Italy, Germany and France of leaving the U.S. on the Iran war and warning he could withdraw U.S. troops from Europe.
- Allied leaders pushed back with concrete commitments: Germany reported record defence spending of €124.7 billion for 2026 and NATO leaders unveiled plans to invest roughly $40 billion in drone‑defence capabilities over five years.
- Hours after the summit began, the U.S. military said it struck more than 80 Iranian targets, reporting hits on air‑defence systems, ship‑defence missiles and over 60 IRGC boats in the Strait of Hormuz, a move that sharply escalates regional tensions.
- Separately, Trump phoned FIFA president Gianni Infantino to lobby over Folarin Balogun’s red card; FIFA then applied a little‑used rule to suspend the ban, a step that drew widespread condemnation from fans, football bodies and politicians.
- The combination of presidential confrontation, a high‑profile sports intervention and a major military escalation is putting pressure on NATO decision‑making, shifting burden‑sharing debates toward faster European capability building and raising the risk of deeper transatlantic rifts.