Nadene Goldfoot
Nato - the North Atlantic Treaty Organization - was formed in Washington DC in 1949 by 12 countries. The founding members were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the UK and the US.
On July 7–8, leaders from all 32 member states are expected convene in the Turkish capital, including U.S. President Donald Trump, whose threats to withdraw from NATO and reduce U.S. troop levels have cast uncertainty over the alliance’s future. Turkey has also unveiled a new VIP airport, converted from a former military airfield, specifically to host NATO leaders.
Nato's main purpose was to block expansion in Europe by the Soviet Union - a group of communist republics dominated by Russia which was dissolved in 1991. It also aimed to prevent the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe and encourage European political integration. It has grown and now has 32 nations belonging.
It is the organization that Donald Trump has complained about because he said the USA paid their dues and kept it going but the others weren't. Well, who were those countries, anyway? NATO’s main political and administrative headquarters are permanently located in Brussels, Belgium. Daily committee consultations and weekly ambassadorial meetings take place there .
Twenty additional European nations have joined since 1952, with the most recent expansions including Finland (April 2023) and Sweden (March 2024). Notable countries added in previous waves include: Germany, Greece, Poland, Spain and Turkey! Turkey officially joined NATO on February 18, 1952, when the Instrument of Accession was signed in Ankara . The country was formally welcomed alongside Greece during the alliance's first expansion.
" President Trump views the NATO alliance as heavily imbalanced, frequently stating that the U.S. bears a disproportionate financial burden while allies fail to reciprocate militarily. Frustrated by a lack of allied support—most notably during U.S. actions involving Iran—he has increasingly embraced the idea of operating independently."
Major, high-level summit meetings involving heads of state take place in different rotating member countries depending on the year.
The Ankara Summit is said to have had their mood changed. What had happened to do that? European allies are less focused on appeasing Trump and more focused on smoothing the transition to a Europe-led alliance.
İsmail Alper Coşkun, Turkish Ambassador: Turkey’s stake in NATO membership and in keeping the alliance afloat is high, given NATO’s enduring centrality to Ankara’s security, defense, and deterrence interests and the way it anchors Turkey in the transatlantic security debate. Turkey’s contributions to NATO and its long-standing desire to host a summit reflect this calculus.
Yet Ankara is also adapting to a changing U.S. posture and evolving security landscape, including a reordering in the Middle East. As Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan noted, no one, including Turkey, can operate on autopilot any longer with a single alliance, namely NATO, as its sole organizing principle. Similarly, Defense Minister Yaşar Güler recently argued that the era of absolute reliance on a single alliance is over. So for Turkey, this is increasingly an era of supplementing NATO with other security mechanisms.
Israel is having problems with Turkey. Relations between Israel and Turkey have plunged to historic lows as the Gaza war and overlapping regional ambitions in Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Horn of Africa fuel military and diplomatic standoffs. Syria: Following Israeli airstrikes near Turkish deployment sites in Syria, the two nations established deconfliction communication, though Ankara warns that Israeli military operations increasingly threaten Turkish security.
NATO Summits: These are major meetings of Heads of State and Government . They are held irregularly at important junctures in the alliance and rotate locations . For example, the summit was held in The Hague, Netherlands, while the subsequent summit was hosted in Ankara, Türkiye (Turkey). The last official NATO Summit meeting was held in The Hague, Netherlands, on June 24–25, 2025 .
Key focuses of this meeting included increasing defense spending, boosting industrial capacity, and supporting Ukraine.
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