NATO leaders will use the July 7-8 Ankara summit to showcase progress on burden sharing and defense-industrial cooperation, though structural political and production constraints will continue to slow the strengthening of collective defense and support for Ukraine. Turkey will host the 36th NATO Summit in Ankara on July 7-8. Thirty-two leaders from NATO countries, as well as Gulf and Asia-Pacific leaders, are expected to attend. On June 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the focus of the summit would be on alliance unity, which has been strained by the Iran and Ukraine wars, as well as reducing barriers to defense trade and cooperation. Other topics of discussion are contentious issues of burden sharing within the alliance, such as ongoing efforts to increase NATO countries' defense spending and support Ukrainian war efforts. Turkey will concurrently host a Defense Industry Forum on defense production, investment and innovation....
