The 29-member military alliance gathered near London for a summit acrimonious even by the standards of the Trump era, aiming to tackle sharp disagreements over spending, future threats including China and Turkey’s role in the alliance. A NATO summit is a summit meeting that is regarded as a periodic opportunity for heads of state and heads of government of NATO member countries to evaluate and provide strategic direction for Alliance activities. NATO summits are not regular meetings like the more frequent NATO ministerial meetings, but rather are important junctures in the alliance’s decision-making process on the highest level. Summits are often used to introduce new policy, invite new members into the alliance, launch major new initiatives, and build partnerships with non-NATO countries.
From the founding of NATO in 1949, there have been a total of thirty NATO summits; the last of which was the UK summit in Watford held in December 2019. Only the traditional summits have received an official number, thereby excluding the exceptional summit of 2001 in NATO headquarters.
Political Affairs 