REAL POLITIK NO. 108
1 – 20 JULY 2026
“ Flash” Comments on 4 major diplomatic events with only 1.000 words by the well-known analist, Grand Master in Diplomacy,
Dr. Jorgji KOTE
1.The Summit of Unity! This is how they have qualified the 36th NATO Summit held in Ankara on 7 – 8 July. Unlike the previous predictions, President Trump showed a great understanding and cooperation. Ankara’s positive spirit permeated the deliberations of this truly historic Summit, which was extensively dealt with at ARGUMENTUM. As it was also referred to in the 6 Point Final Declaration, they agreed to implement the decisions of the Summit in the Hague on the 5 per cent of the GDP for defence, the enhancement of the military production and defence investments in all Member States. Likewise, they agreed to continue the full-fleged support together with economic&military aids for Ukraine, starting with granting 70 Billion Dollars for 2026 and 2027 each, providing the US license for the production of the “Patriot” missile system and others. Thus, Ankara’s spirit has led to the strengthening of the much expected political and military unity and cohesion of the Alliance.
It goes without doubt that the credit for this goes to all the NATO leaders who went to the Summit with plenty of good statistics and positive balance sheets. The same applies to the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte; he proved to be also in Ankara at the height of the challenge and a diplomatic headmaster. Europe showed that it is ready and it has already started to pass from “burden sharing to burden shifting”, undertaking more from NATO financial obligations.
The credit for the shining success of this Summit goes undoubtedly to the Turkish hosts and to President Erdogan, in particular. Ankara Summit did also promote Tϋrkiye as the key geopolitical actor and factor in the region, displacing even the the EU, despite its growing security role. The deserved trust for Ankara relies on the fact that Tϋrkiye is the second largest military might in NATO in terms of the number of military, its major role in mediating conflicts with Russia, Iran, Siria, its strategic position and other factors as well.
Finally, Ankara Summit was a historic event for the Alliance and bad news for Putin.
2. Think of peace and prepare for war! This was the major message of the Summit of 35 Member States of the Coaliton of the Willing for Ukraine held on 13 July and hosted by President Macron with the presence of President Zelenski as well. Among some important decisions taken there was the establishment of the Baltic anti-missile coalition among 10 major countries, the continuation of military and economic aids for Ukraine and the measures to establish western security troops in a possible ceasefire and peace with Ukraine. This 16th Summit of the Coaliton of the Willing was held in favourable moments when Ukraine is making substantial progress in the war frontlines, especially by attacking Russia deep in its territory, in Saint Petersburg and even in Moscow! And when Russia is in a much more difficult position, with an economic decline from 1,3 to 0,4 per cent, losing up to 10.000 soldiers monthly and with the war debt rising to 136 Billion dollars in 2026. In brief, it is high time to think about peace. However, in the circumstances when Putin remains dangerous, when he does not move even a centimeter from his previous positions on an Ukraine without army, without NATO, without Donetsk and other ” withouts” and when he provokes other NATO states, peace remains far away and wishful thinking. This is why Europe is intensifying its preparations to defend itself from possible Russian attacks and to keep its support for Ukraine going. On 17 July, in Kőln, President Macron and Chancellor Merz agreed to conduct a joint nuclear military exercise and to develop their joint military capacities. Thus, Europe is properly applying the maxim “ think of peace and prepare for war!
3. It’s only the start to the end! The 9th Inter-Governmental Conference EU – Albania was held in Brussels on 13 July. It did also mark the closure of Chapters 24, 25 and 30 of Accession Negotiations. They deal with education, science, culture and foreign relations. Actually, they are the easiest from the 36 chapters; they could have been closed even earlier, if the provisioal closure of the cluster “ Fundamentals” would not have lasted for months. This is why there is no room for euphoria, glamour and propaganda drums. Caution, we have just opened the closure of the six clusters, because only recenty we started the closure of these clusters. Moreover, we have to close five other clusters, which look indeed like high mountains – agriculture, green environment, competition, singe market; they would culminate to the “ heavy artillery “ of the EU or “ Achilles heel” for us, i.e. the cluster “ Fundamentals”. This extremely problematic cluster for which the EU does not tolerate at all would be opened and debated again in Brussels, when the rest of the five clusters are closed. When it is known that there is a large heap of dossiers with frightening names – crime, galloping corruption, lack of free and fair elections, impunity of top governmental officials and specifically the ill-famed “Balluku” file. Without mentioning other democratic deficits which are mentioned with loud voice also in the great civil Protest rallies in Tirana. And on top of that when we do not have more than 18 months at our disposal; which means that we have to close a cluster in each quarter, a very hard objective; for now there is not any more talk of refrains and rhetorics but for reforms an realizations. Not to mention problems with other EU Member States and issues among them.
4. Just a pause between two wars!
The developments during this month, the violation of the Memorandum of Understanding on peace between USA and Iran and the resumption of their military conflict have shaken again the Middle East and the whole world politics and economy. Since ARGUMENTUM has addressed them into details, now we shall only say that they prove our precaution in the past issue; in more concrete terms this 60 day Peace Memorandum of Understanding failed to lead to genuine and sustainable peace. Unfortunately, it ended up and it was reduced to, as we warned in the past issue like a “ pause between two wars” !
© 2026 Argumentum
