NATO summit in Türkiye will showcase NATO unity, military strength: Polish president

The NATO summit in Türkiye this July will demonstrate the alliance’s political unity and military strength amid growing security concerns related to Russia, said Poland’s president on Wednesday.

Speaking at a joint news conference after a Bucharest Nine (B9) summit in Romania, Karol Nawrocki said allied leaders held “constructive dialogue” ahead of the July 7-8 NATO summit in Ankara, according to Romania’s national news agency Agerpres.

The Polish leader said cooperation within the B9 format remains strong and voiced support for expanding the group to include Nordic countries such as Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, and Denmark – all of them fellow NATO members.

He said the planned expansion would strengthen security coordination across NATO’s eastern flank “from the Arctic to the Black Sea.”

Nawrocki said the summit’s final declaration reaffirmed commitments to boost defense spending and take firm measures against what he described as Russian aggression.

“The Ankara summit, in our shared view, should demonstrate – and will demonstrate – the alliance’s political unity and military strength in addressing the threats posed by the Russian Federation,” he said.

“The Kremlin seeks to rebuild its spheres of influence, to undermine NATO’s cohesion, and to erode the sovereignty and democracy of countries in our region,” he added.

Nawrocki also said the allies hoped to deliver a “strong message” from Ankara encouraging NATO members to accelerate defense spending, adding that commitments adopted at the last summit in The Hague should be viewed as “a target along the way.”

Highlighting the importance of transatlantic ties, Nawrocki said leaders attending the summit agreed that “there is no NATO without the United States,” stressing that strong Europe-US cooperation remains essential for regional security.

The Polish president also announced that the next B9 summit will be hosted in Warsaw.