NATO Summit Held in Ankara as U.S.-Turkey Defense Ties Advance Amid Gulf Attendance

The 2026 NATO Summit convened in Ankara, Turkey. Leaders from Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates participated as part of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative. US President Donald Trump attended the July 7 meeting and both criticized and praised European allies.

The gathering occurred against the backdrop of a prior war with Iran and an ongoing stalemate in the Strait of Hormuz that featured renewed escalation in fighting that week. Gulf states had previously relied on four-million-dollar Patriot missiles to intercept Iranian drones. Ukraine deployed two hundred counter-drone specialists to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.

Kyiv signed ten-year defense agreements with those three countries and offered inexpensive interceptors against Iranian drones. South Korea’s Cheongung-II air defense system achieved its first combat intercept while defending the UAE. Seoul supplied replacement interceptors to the UAE within days after the intercept.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar purchased counter-drone systems from Turkey during the Iran war. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a mutual defense pact in 2025. China provided neither security nor diplomatic support to Gulf states during the war.

Russia did not press Iran to halt attacks on Gulf partners. A NATO symbol was displayed at the Defence Industry Forum during the summit. The Atlantic Council convened a dialogue in Brussels with Germany’s Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, the UAE’s Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy, and Saudi Arabia’s Prince Saud Al-Faisal Institute for Diplomatic Studies.