“This is really the NATO summit where NATO goes from burden sharing to burden shifting,” said Ulrike Franke, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
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Franke noted that European nations must quickly translate larger financial allocations into actual industrial production and military capabilities.
“Now there's money in the system, but we need to be able to spend it,” said Franke.
“Europe needs to be able to produce things,” Franke added regarding the current fragmentation of the European defense sector.
“Ukraine has the cards in drones and counter-drone systems,” said Franke.
The policy expert emphasized that Ukraine has become a source of battlefield innovation rather than just a recipient of Western financial aid.
“The data indicates [that] the Russians are performing terribly in 2026,” said Seth Jones, president of the Defense and Security Department at CSIS.
Jones cited high casualty rates and territorial losses suffered by Russian forces as Ukraine intensifies long-range drone strikes inside Russia.
“They are our best allies, they are our best trading partners, they are critical to our national security, to our economic success, and we need to encourage those relationships,” said Sen.
Jeanne Shaheen, D-N. H.
Shaheen is leading a bipartisan congressional delegation to Turkey to reinforce American legislative support for the security alliance.
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On the sidelines of the summit, Trump is scheduled to hold separate bilateral meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
