Keir Starmer in Ankara as NATO announces £37bn missile deal

UK PM Keir Starmer was in Ankara on 7 July for a fraught NATO conference as the alliance announced a new £37bn missile deal. The major militarist project, known as Deep Precision Strike, is meant to protect Europe. The Turkey summit will be the outgoing Starmer’s last NATO conference.

Anadolu Agency reported:

The two-day meeting will focus on implementing defense spending commitments agreed at the 2025 summit, sustaining military support for Ukraine and expanding defense industrial production.

The summit is taking place amid renewed debate over transatlantic burden-sharing and continued uncertainty over the Russia-Ukraine war.

The BBC said the proposed system:

is intended to strike targets nearly 200 miles (300km) away with pinpoint accuracy, possibly extending out to 1,250 miles.

Starmer is likely to face criticism from US President Donald Trump:

for failing to set out a plan for reaching 3.5% of GDP spent on defence by 2035, a target agreed by nearly all Nato members last year.

A major schism between the US and the European NATO members has opened up with Trump and his camp demanding greater spending from allies. This has seen the US threaten to pull some troops, jets and ships out of Europe.

A spokesman for Starmer told reporters on 6 July:

We reject these claims. The UK has always met its Nato spending commitments and remains one of the top defence centres in the alliance.

Starmer will hype the threat to the UK posed by Russia. His foreign secretary Yvette Cooper told journalists on 7 July:

With deep precision strike capability, the UK and our allies will be able to hit high-value military targets and the logistical engines that drive armies, deterring any aggressor and strengthening our mutual security.

Adding:

At Ankara we are sending a clear message to [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin; Nato is stronger, more European and ready to defend our citizens against the long-term threat posed by him and the Russian state.

The UK agreed to sell fighter jets to Turkey itself in October 2025. As the Canary reported at the time:

The UK is selling 20 Typhoon fighter jets to Turkey. Turkey being an increasingly authoritarian country which the UK itself urged to do better on human rights as recently as May.

Our deal with Türkiye is a win for British workers, a win for our defence industry, and a win for our security. pic.twitter.com/7PpdKCEodo

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) October 27, 2025

The UK and US governments are committed militarists, regardless of which party is in power. The difference is that the US wants to see allies take on more of the economic burden for ‘defending’ Europe. Those allies, meanwhile, are keenly aware that the US, the dominant force in NATO, is much diminished.

In essence, this is an internal argument within the ‘western’ ruling class — between a declining and chaotic US empire and its client states in Europe.

Featured image via Twitter