NATO is actively deliberating whether to end its practice of holding annual leaders' summits, with some member states pushing for a biennial format and at least one diplomat floating the option of canceling the 2028 gathering entirely, according to six sources, including a senior European official and five diplomats from NATO member countries, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. No decision has been made, and Secretary General Mark Rutte retains the final say. The discussions follow a sustained pattern of friction between the Trump administration and the alliance that has complicated every major NATO heads-of-state convening since 2017.
The frequency of NATO summits has varied across the alliance's 77-year history, but leaders have met every summer since 2021, holding gatherings in Madrid (2022), Vilnius (2023), Washington (2024), and The Hague (2025). Secretary General Rutte announced in August 2025 that the next summit will be held July 7 and 8, 2026, at the Beştepe Presidential Compound in Ankara, Turkey. From NATO's founding in 1949 through the end of the Cold War, roughly 40 years, the alliance held only 10 summits. The recent shift to annual gatherings has no formal treaty basis; summits do not follow a regular or set schedule, though they are normally planned far in advance, and they serve as periodic opportunities for heads of state and government to address issues of overarching political or strategic importance.
The internal debate reflects more than one variable. Trump's posture toward the alliance remains a central concern: NATO is weighing whether to end annual summits partly to avoid a potentially tense encounter with President Trump in his final year in office, given that his administration has engaged repeatedly in sharp criticism of the alliance's other 31 members. One diplomat indicated that the 2027 summit, planned for Albania, would likely take place that autumn, and that the 2028 summit, which would fall during the U.S. presidential election year and Trump's final full calendar year in power, may not be held at all. Reuters also noted that Trump's first three NATO summits were characterized as conflict-driven events dominated by his complaints about allied defense spending. A separate but related consideration involves summit design itself: sources indicated that the annual cadence creates institutional pressure to produce visible, headline-ready deliverables, which can crowd out longer-range strategic planning [POLITICO].
The backdrop to this structural debate is the alliance's current burden-sharing trajectory. At the 2025 Hague summit, allies committed to investing 5% of GDP annually on defense by 2035, including 3.5% on core defense requirements and 1.5% on defense- and security-related spending, a sharp increase from the prior 2% benchmark. NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska has said the July 2026 Ankara summit will focus on implementing past decisions and delivering tangible results, framing it as an accountability session rather than a summit for new commitments. A NATO report released ahead of Ankara showed that military spending among alliance members rose roughly one-fifth year-on-year in 2025, reaching $574 billion.
The summit-frequency debate also intersects with the alliance's statutory footing in U.S. domestic law. Section 1250A of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 provides that the President shall not suspend, terminate, denounce, or withdraw the United States from NATO except by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and prohibits the use of appropriated funds for that purpose. That provision, enacted in direct response to persistent Trump-era skepticism toward the alliance, limits the executive's unilateral options but does not govern the procedural question of summit scheduling, which falls to the Secretary General and member-state consensus. Any move to a biennial format would be an internal administrative adjustment, not a treaty modification, requiring no formal ratification by member governments.
References:
[1] Reuters via Detroit News. (2026, April 27). Bruised by Trump, NATO alliance considers end to annual summits. https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/world/2026/04/27/nato-considers-ending-annual-summits-amid-tensions-with-trump/89820697007/
[2] Reuters via Japan Times. (2026, April 28). Bruised by Trump, NATO alliance considers end to annual summits. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/04/28/world/politics/trump-nato-end-annual-summits/
[3] NATO. (2025, August 19). Türkiye to host 2026 NATO Summit in Ankara. https://www.nato.int/en/news-and-events/articles/news/2025/08/20/turkiye-to-host-2026-nato-summit-in-ankara
[4] NATO. (n.d.). NATO Summits. https://www.act.nato.int/activities/nato-summit/
[5] NATO. (n.d.). NATO summits topic page. https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_50115.htm
[6] Anadolu Agency. (2026, February 2). NATO says Ankara summit in July to focus on delivering concrete results. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/world/nato-says-ankara-summit-in-july-to-focus-on-delivering-concrete-results/3817974
[7] Daily Sabah. (2026). Türkiye gears up for key NATO summit as major actor. https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/diplomacy/turkiye-gears-up-for-key-nato-summit-as-major-actor
[8] Congressional Research Service via Congress.gov. (2025). NATO's June 2025 Summit in The Hague. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IN12566
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