NATO’s Waiting Game

Situation Report A weekly digest of national security, defense, and cybersecurity news from Foreign Policy reporters John Haltiwanger and Rishi Iyengar. What’s next? , a staff writer at Foreign Policy, and John Haltiwanger, a staff writer at Foreign Policy. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte attends a press conference during the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, on July 8. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte attends a press conference during the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, on July 8. Burak Kara/ July 9, 2026, PM Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Situation Report, where your co-authors have somehow made it through not only another hectic multilateral gathering but also the first day without a World Cup match in weeks. They both plan to stay up late in Turkey to watch France play Morocco, though. Alright, here’s what’s on tap for the day: NATO takes stock after Trump’s amicable departure, the U. S.-Iran cease-fire takes further hits, and Turkey has a potential fighter jet breakthrough. Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Situation Report, where your co-authors have somehow made it through not only another hectic multilateral gathering but also the first day without a World Cup match in weeks. They both plan to stay up late in Turkey to watch France play Morocco, though. Alright, here’s what’s on tap for the day: NATO takes stock after Trump’s amicable departure, the U. S.-Iran cease-fire takes further hits, and Turkey has a potential fighter jet breakthrough. The Future of NATO 3.0 The pageantry has ended, the world leaders have left, and Ankara traffic is back to normal. President Donald Trump—despite some halftime hiccups—left the NATO summit in Turkey’s capital on a positive note. “[T]here was tremendous love in that room,” Trump said in his final press conference, where he largely avoided criticizing the alliance’s other members like he has in the past. “There was tremendous unity in that room,” he added, using a word that NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and European leaders had tried to repeatedly emphasize over the two-day gathering. And while those leaders will undoubtedly be breathing a sigh of relief at that sentiment(ality), keeping Trump happy wasn’t necessarily their core focus this year. “The way it all ended with the communiqué and the press conference, you could almost say it was business as usual with the Trump show on the side,” Torrey Taussig, who served as a Europe director on former U.