German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul is set to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington this week to negotiate a new burden-sharing arrangement within NATO, ahead of the alliance’s summit in Ankara on 7–8 July. Simultaneously, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told NATO parliamentarians in Istanbul that Turkey must be included in European defence structures, including the EU’s €150 billion SAFE initiative, and called for the removal of all barriers to defence industry trade among allies. The summit, hosted in the Turkish capital, will test the alliance’s cohesion amid persistent US demands for greater European financial contributions and friction over trade restrictions.

Viewed from Washington, the Trump administration has repeatedly questioned the value of security commitments to allies it accuses of free-riding, and has linked burden-sharing to continued US engagement. Former NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, now Norway’s finance minister, argued in an interview with Die Welt that US national security remains deeply dependent on European partners. He noted that Norway’s border with Russia and its monitoring of Russian submarine movements and missile launches provide critical early warning for North American cities, as the nuclear arsenal on the Kola Peninsula is aimed at Washington and New York, not Oslo. European diplomats point to rising defence budgets: Germany is on track to become the continent’s largest defence investor, and Stoltenberg said a growing number of allies now meet the 3.5 percent of GDP spending target for core defence tasks.

Turkish officials insist that the country’s strategic role is undervalued. Erdoğan stressed that Turkey expects the summit to produce results that respect allies’ national security sensitivities and strengthen solidarity. Ankara wants to join all EU defence and security initiatives, but its access to the SAFE fund requires unanimous approval from all 27 EU members, and Greece has threatened to block it. Turkey also seeks allied support for its campaign against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and complains that US and European defence trade restrictions, imposed over policy differences and Ankara’s ties with Russia, undermine alliance cohesion. From Brussels, EU officials have not publicly committed to Turkish inclusion, while Berlin and other capitals emphasise the primacy of transatlantic unity.

On Ukraine, Wadephul said sustained support would signal to Moscow that the time has come to negotiate. Stoltenberg, while stating that he does not believe Russian President Vladimir Putin can be persuaded to change course, argued that maximising military aid before any talks can alter Moscow’s calculation. He described Russia’s full-scale invasion as a strategic failure that has not achieved its objectives. The summit is expected to address long-term security assistance for Kyiv, alongside discussions on Iran and Gaza. The outcome of the Wadephul–Rubio meeting and the Ankara gathering will indicate whether the alliance can reconcile divergent interests into a new burden-sharing framework, or whether centrifugal pressures will intensify.