Atlantic Council -AC Intel - Thursday, June 25, 2026 - By Katherine Golden - next month’s NATO Summit are modest following last year’s historic gathering and more ...

 

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Thursday, June 25, 2026

Katherine Golden, AC Intel Anchor

If your expectations for next month’s NATO Summit are modest following last year’s historic gathering, Secretary General Mark Rutte wants you to raise them.   That was my takeaway from watching Rutte speak on our stage today, in front of an audience that included European diplomats and reporters from major media outlets. As he explained, the Ankara summit “may be even more important than The Hague,” where the allies signed onto a new target of spending 5 percent of their GDPs on defense.   “It’s great to have the commitments... but then to deliver on our commitments, and that’s what I’m seeing is going to happen in Ankara, is even more important,” he explained. “In the end, Putin is not afraid of commitments. He is afraid of [us] implementing those commitments.”   “And,” he said, addressing the Russian leader, “that’s exactly what we are doing, Vladimir.”   Your AC Intel starts there.

1.

“Don’t be afraid of some discussions—and sometimes some tensions”

Amid a strained US-NATO relationship, Rutte explained that tensions are to be expected as the Alliance undertakes such a major “transformation” in its approach to defense. “These are democracies working together,” he explained. “This is the difference between us and dictatorships: They give the impression that everybody agrees.”

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2.

Pakistan could take its Iran win and run with it

Analyzing whether Pakistan’s mediation gamble paid off, South Asia expert Michael Kugelman writes in Foreign Policy that Islamabad now has an opportunity to expand its global footprint. But it will need to first “address the internal problems that have sullied its image, including political repression and terrorism.”

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3.

Don’t look away from Russia’s war on religion

From his exclusive interviews with Ukraine’s religious leaders, our Eurasia Center’s Mark Temnycky concludes in Forbes that Russia’s attacks on religious sites (including, recently, a historically significant monastery) have “managed to unite all of Ukraine’s ethnic, cultural, and religious groups against Russia, and Ukrainian spirits remain unbroken.”

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4.

Europe has gotten an AI reality check

After the US ordered Anthropic to suspend foreigners’ access to its latest models, EU tech chief Roberto Viola told our audience that “the best possible outcome” for the US and Europe “is that allies share the access to frontier model[s]” so that “like-minded countries can work together to ensure that we advance AI.”

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5.

Radiological and nuclear threats aren’t coming for Europe. They’re already there.

Sounding the alarm about two radiological incidents in Europe, former Polish security official Jacek Siewiera and former NATO nuclear policy lead Jim Stokes call for updating Europe’s chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear detection tools. Current ones, they explain, are “useless” against modern methods of attack, such as a “contaminated banknote” or “a drone over a park.”

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FUTURE INTEL   The tensions in the South China Sea are growing

Rear Admiral Jay Tarriela of the Philippines Coast Guard joins us to give his report on the latest security dynamics in the South China Sea and ongoing efforts to deter Chinese aggression.

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