What Mark Carney can accomplish as NATO meets

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Today, Prime Minister Mark Carney has been in Turkey, and he has been busy. This morning marked the start of the NATO Summit in Ankara, two days of meetings about the state of the military alliance. It's the first time Turkey has hosted the summit since 2004, and this year, there is plenty to talk about. Today, the Prime Minister met with the Chancellor of Germany and the Prime Minister of Norway to talk submarines. He met with the President of Ukraine to talk military support, and he met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, apparently, to talk trade. Shortly after that meeting, Canada and Turkey formally launched negotiations for a free trade agreement.
Kerry Buck is a former Canadian ambassador to NATO. We reached her in Ottawa.

**Nil Köksal** (2:54)
Kerry Buck, Canada, is making some moves. Some work is getting done at this summit, but we're also hearing that the Allies are sort of tiptoeing around Trump. They're worried. It might be awkward. How can they get anything done? Is this the way that this Alliance should be conducting business?

**Kerry Buck** (3:12)
It's clear and it's true that this year's meeting is once again primarily about managing the US and keeping President Trump committed to the Alliance.
Is that the best way to run an Alliance? No, but is it the way that tactically has to be done right now to keep the Alliance moving forward? Absolutely yes, because it's in the Allies' interest, Canada's interest, even the US interest, I would argue, to keep America inside the NATO tent. So what that means is that there are a few Trump management techniques that are being used. We used them when I was at NATO for the first summit in 2018 that President Trump was at, and that's it's going to be a radically shortened agenda. There's a lot of other business that NATO needs to do. They'll primarily focus on the scorecard. How much have you spent? Do you have a credible plan to get to the 5% goal? And are you turning that money into capabilities, right? So they're going to focus on that.
It's unfortunate that they won't be talking about some of the other business. But the key bits of business that in addition have to happen, like sustainable support for Ukraine, I expect there to be enough of that to make the summit more than worthwhile, to be honest. But it is what it is. The best summit outcome is no drama.

**Nil Köksal** (4:35)
One of the things we're hearing about, the bits of news that are coming out, that involves Canada and host nation Turkey, that these two countries are trying to hammer out, you know, a potential free trade agreement. What signal do you get from that, those negotiations?