Watch the event
For NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, the Ankara summit next month “is about delivery.”
Rutte spoke at an Atlantic Council Front Page event on Thursday at the Council’s Washington headquarters, arguing that the Ankara summit could wind up “even more important” than last year’s in The Hague, where allies committed to spending 5 percent of their gross domestic product on defense.
“It’s great to have the commitments, and The Hague was a big success,” he explained, “but then to deliver on the commitments… is even more important.”
“In the end,” he said, Russian President Vladimir Putin “is not afraid of commitments. He is afraid of implementing those commitments.” And that, he added, “is exactly what we are doing, Vladimir.”
Ultimately, Rutte said, this summit would be a success if it sends Moscow a message that whenever it makes “a silly move” against the Alliance, that “we are ready to defend ourselves.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is slated to join the NATO leaders in Ankara, and Rutte said that he expects the allies will “show him and all Ukrainians that our support endures.”
Below are more highlights from the event, moderated by Atlantic Council President and CEO Frederick Kempe, in which the secretary general outlined what else he hopes allies will achieve when they come together in Ankara next month.
Unity—but also debate
As the Alliance moves into a phase its leaders describe as NATO 3.0, “don’t be afraid of some discussions and sometimes some tensions,” Rutte said.Rutte spoke the day after a cordial Oval Office meeting with US President Donald Trump. There, he walked Trump through statistics that show Europeans “are really stepping up” as a Europe-led NATO 3.0 takes shape.“You will have some debates. You will have some discussions. You will have some tensions,” he explained at the Atlantic Council. “These are democracies working together.”The Alliance’s values, free media, and debate are “the strength of NATO,” he said. “We fight each other sometimes at the top of our lungs, and then in the end we always come together, for seventy-seven years now.”More millions and billions
Rutte said that he also expects “an incredible transformation in defense investment” to take place in Ankara.“Allies are stepping up,” he noted, pointing out that European allies and Canada have increased their defense spending over the past ten years by $1.2 trillion—a figure the secretary general called “The Trump Trillion” at the White House on Wednesday.He said that he is “convinced” that NATO “would not have made such an astounding leap without President Trump’s leadership.”On meeting the 5 percent target for defense and defense-related spending, Rutte said that allies overall “are in pretty good shape,” but if any prove to be lagging, he will give them “tough but discreet” encouragement.At the Ankara summit, he said, “allies will put forth concrete plans for increased investment,” including “tens of billions of dollars of new contracts” with major players in the defense industry at the NATO Summit Defence Industry Forum, to be held on the first day of the gathering in Ankara.NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte speaks at the Atlantic Council on June 25, 2026. Photo via NATO.
