The NATO summit in Ankara concluded with an abrupt reversal by US President Donald Trump, who first instructed his Treasury Secretary to “cut off all trade with Spain, including visits” before declaring hours later that Madrid had “came all the way back” and been “very generous.” The shift, announced aboard Air Force One, followed what Trump described as Spain’s agreement to an unspecified “request for lots of payment.” Earlier, he had labelled the ally a “wasted cause” and a “terrible partner” for refusing to meet the alliance’s new 5% of GDP defence spending goal and for denying US forces use of Spanish bases during the Iran campaign.

Viewed from Madrid, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez characterised his brief exchange with Trump as “very cordial,” focused on football and golf rather than military expenditure. His office stressed that Spain runs a trade deficit with the United States and that European Union rules prevent bilateral trade negotiations. Spanish officials noted that defence spending has already doubled to 2% of GDP since 2018 and announced a fresh troop deployment to Finland under NATO’s Arctic Sentry mission. The government maintained that the bilateral economic relationship, built by private companies, remains robust, even as US agencies were instructed to prepare a list of Spanish products that could face embargo.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte framed the summit as “tremendously successful,” pointing to a quarter-trillion dollars in extra defence spending pledged by European allies and Canada over two years. The final communiqué reaffirmed the Article 5 mutual defence commitment as “ironclad” and endorsed the 5% GDP target by 2035. Rutte acknowledged US irritation over burden-sharing but insisted the alliance’s deterrent credibility was intact. European diplomats, speaking anonymously, expressed relief that the gathering did not worsen transatlantic fractures, though some analysts in Washington argued that the public theatrics had already inflicted lasting damage on perceptions of alliance cohesion.

Beyond the Spain dispute, the summit produced concrete steps on Ukraine. Trump announced that Kyiv would receive a licence to manufacture Patriot air defence interceptors, addressing a critical missile shortage exacerbated by the US campaign against Iran. Allies also pledged to sustain military support for Ukraine at €80 billion annually through 2026 and 2027. The meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky was described by Trump as filled with “a lot of love,” a marked departure from their acrimonious White House encounter eighteen months earlier.

The Ankara gathering leaves the alliance navigating a transactional dynamic in which public threats and last-minute concessions have become routine. While the US Treasury, Commerce Department and Trade Representative are technically still compiling a menu of Spanish goods for possible sanctions, Trump’s airborne remarks suggest the immediate crisis has passed. The focus now shifts to whether member states can translate spending pledges into industrial capacity, with Rutte emphasising that the next phase is to “ramp up defence industrial production even further.”