NATO is calling an urgent meeting of Europe's biggest arms-makers next week in Brussels. Not for a traditional summit. For something more politically loaded: how to double or triple Europe's weapons production within a year, while relations with the US fall apart in plain sight.

Mark Rutte, NATO's secretary-general, is calling in the bosses of Airbus, Rheinmetall, Safran, Saab, MBDA and Leonardo. The main message is simple: if NATO members hit defence-spending targets of 5% of GDP (the new bar Donald Trump is pushing), by 2035 Europe will have to spend an extra trillion dollars on weapons compared with 2024. And not in theory - in concrete terms, with factories, tanks, ammunition, missiles.

The reasons aren't hidden. First, Trump. Continual pressure for higher European defence spending. Second, US reluctance to back European weapons procurement for the Iran conflict. Third - and most shocking - the Pentagon unexpectedly pulled 5,000 troops out of Germany. Fourth, the diplomatic strain between Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, after which Berlin suddenly approved huge budgets for ammunition.

The meeting's main question, reading between the lines: "The point is that this rise in defence spending finally looks real and tangible on paper." That's the reality of the US-European alliance in 2026 - not a "shared value", but a wobbly slideshow of figures.

For the Balkans, this is a weighty moment. When Brussels talks factories and budgets, it means our neighbours - Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria - will be plugged into the supply chain. Maybe Macedonia gets a chance to come in as a sub-contractor. Maybe again - as usual - we'll be the ones reading the news about how other countries are picking up factories and export contracts while our own mines stay empty. Who decides? That's always the question.