ISTANBUL (Dispatches) - The 36th NATO heads of State and Government Summit opened in Ankara on Tuesday with the NATO Summit Defense Industry Forum, placing defense production, industrial capacity and joint procurement at the front of the Alliance agenda for the first time. 
NATO leaders gathered in Ankara after a turbulent six months, hoping – in the case of the other 31 members of the alliance – to mollify an unpredictable Donald Trump, as Washington continues to pressure its allies to increase defense spending.
On Monday, Mark Rutte, NATO’s secretary general, called for the allies to present “clear, concrete and credible plans” to reach the organization’s spending targets. “President Trump fully expects that all allies will step up immediately and get on the path to 5% and do it with urgency,” he said.
NATO members will unveil tens of billions in new arms contracts at an industry forum on the sidelines of the summit, as they attempt to show Trump that they are delivering on defense spending pledges.
On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he was disappointed with NATO allies as he arrived in Ankara, capital of Türkiye, for the alliance’s summit.
Answering journalists’ questions before a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Presidential Complex, Trump sharply criticized European allies.
Stating that Italy, France, and Germany “let us down,” Trump asked, “So why are we spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, and they didn’t come to our aid?”
Erdogan said during the meeting that Turkey was making every effort to stabilize Iran-U.S. relations.
The reluctance of European countries to send warships to support U.S. efforts to “reopen” the Strait of Hormuz had prompted criticism from Trump, who harshly accused European allies of benefiting from U.S. security guarantees while refusing to offer help in the Iran war. 
The summit also is expected to agree that allies will commit a largely symbolic €70bn in military aid to Ukraine this year and next, though this largely reflects commitments already made to a country that has no pathway to joining NATO.
When Rutte met Trump in the Oval Office last month, he brought along a couple of large cardboard panels, illustrating how much the non-US members of Nato had been spending since the U.S. president started to complain about Europe free-riding on U.S. defense outlay.
Rutte highlighted a chart referring to “the Trump trillion” – the cumulative amount spent on defence by European members and Canada since the two-time president first took office in 2017.
The elementary communication was intended to show, in Rutte’s words, that Trump “is successful in terms of getting the Europeans to spend more”. But with transatlantic relations already at a low, and with the US keen to ensure steps are being taken to honour the 3.5% commitment, a diplomatically harmonious summit cannot be guaranteed.
On Friday, Trump posted a graphic on his Truth Social platform showing NATO members’ defense budgets, comparing a vast U.S. spend of $999bn with smaller figures from European states including the UK and France.