The NATO Summit in Ankara
Turkish capital Ankara is hosting the NATO Summit.
Sorin Iordan, 08.07.2026, 14:00
NATO member states have announced plans to invest over 40 billion dollars over the next five years to enhance their anti-drone defence capabilities. The decision was made in Ankara, the host of the NATO summit, where Romania is represented by its president, Nicușor Dan. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that, through the Drone Edge initiative, allies have committed to collaborating on the procurement, storage, transport and management of essential defence stockpiles.
Drones have fundamentally altered, as we all know, the character of modern warfare. And they have become a decisive factor on the battlefield. This is clear from what we see in Ukraine, in the Middle East, and across the Alliance. Allies themselves have seen repeated drone incursions. In response, NATO is rapidly expanding our ability to deploy and operate drones at scale. And at the same time, we are building robust counter-drone defences to detect, identify, and neutralise drones”, Rutte said. He noted that the initiative involves countries such as Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, and Turkey, and emphasised that the allies have pledged to train five times as many drone pilots within their armed forces by the end of 2027.
Romanian president Nicușor Dan said his country would host one of the regional offices of the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank and would seek increased Allied support in the Black Sea region, as well as the strengthening of air and maritime defences on the Alliance’s Eastern Flank. Meanwhile, Romanian Defence Minister Radu Miruță, who attended the Defence Industry Forum held alongside the summit, said Romania has a direct interest in countering the drone threat, in the context of the Russian aggression in Ukraine. He announced that Bucharest would continue to allocate more funds for defence, in line with the commitments made at last year’s NATO summit in The Hague, and noted that several initiatives regarding cooperation among NATO states were signed to this end, including the GlobalEye project, which entails replacing American AWACS surveillance aircraft with a new, more advanced system.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is also present in Ankara. He said his country’s defence capabilities could strengthen NATO if Ukraine would become part of NATO and again called for increased support for Ukraine’s air defence. Against this backdrop, Kyiv was once again the target of missiles and drones attacks, following an incident on Monday in which Russian forces killed 30 civilians in Ukraine. A particularly tense moment during the summit in Ankara was the speech by U.S. President Donald Trump, who launched a fresh attack on the allies. He expressed deep disappointment with NATO countries for failing to provide sufficient support in the U.S. conflict with Iran, singling out Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy. Furthermore, Trump reiterated his claim that the U.S. should control Greenland, a territory that belongs to NATO member state Denmark.
