NATO Allies Discuss Abandoning Annual Summit Format to Avoid Trump Confrontations

NATO allies are in active discussions about ending the recent practice of holding annual summits, according to six sources cited by Reuters on April 27–28, 2026. The 2027 summit in Albania is still planned for autumn, but the alliance is debating whether to skip 2028 entirely — Trump's final full calendar year in office — with some allies pushing for summits every two years instead. Secretary General Mark Rutte retains final authority; no formal decision has been made. The driving motivation is a desire to avoid confrontational encounters with Trump, who has repeatedly berated European allies for refusing to support US military operations in Iran, declared the alliance has 'failed' the US, and is reportedly considering formal withdrawal. The shift would represent a stark departure from the post-Lisbon Treaty summit cadence that NATO allies have used since 2010 to demonstrate alliance cohesion and political unity. Critics within the alliance note that skipping summits sends precisely the signal of weakness and disunity that adversaries — including Russia — would exploit. The discussion accelerated following Trump's April 26 declaration that 'The Atlantic Alliance has failed us,' the sharpest condemnation of NATO by a sitting US president in the alliance's 77-year history. The next institutional milestones remain the Helsingborg Foreign Ministers' meeting (May 21–22) and the Ankara Leaders' Summit (July 7–8, 2026).