President Donald Trump ended the NATO Leaders Summit in Ankara with a more upbeat tone toward the alliance, praising its "unification" and saying there was "tremendous love in that room." Earlier in the summit, Trump had criticized NATO members, threatened to pull US troops out of Europe, and reiterated his desire to control Greenland. However, by the end he praised members for working toward the 5 percent GDP defense spending target by 2035, emphasizing that purchases should support the US economy if weapons producers can ramp up production quickly. In a surprise development, Trump floated the idea of providing Ukraine with a license to produce Patriot air defense systems, telling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, "We're going to give a license to you to make Patriots." This comes as Kyiv has been running through its supply of Patriot interceptors. NATO leaders also announced $3 billion in new deals with US weapons producers, including UK plans to spend $254 million on Lockheed Martin's Precision Strike Missile program, Denmark's plans to acquire two Boeing P-8 Poseidon aircraft, and joint acquisition of up to five Northrop Grumman-produced MQ-4C Tritons. Lockheed Martin and Raytheon did not respond to requests for comment on the proposed Patriot production plan.
AI-Powered News Curation