Yes, President Trump and President Emmanuel Macron of France exchanged some sharp words. And yes, Trump might have suffered some mild Justin Trudeau-led teasing behind his back. But despite hyperbolic media coverage which suggests the world’s most successful multilateral alliance is dying, the NATO summit in London, which concluded on Wednesday, was a huge success.

First off, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan backed away from a previous threat to block improved NATO support for the Baltic states and Poland. Until Wednesday, Erdogan had been holding out on this unless the alliance recognized the Kurdish YPG group in Syria — an ad hoc ally against the Islamic State in the recent war — as a terrorist organization. Instead, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda observed that the Baltic states and Poland had met with Erdogan and received his support. This is a positive development which suggests that Turkey might reconsider its increasing deference to Vladimir Putin. The Russian leader, after all, will be unhappy with Erdogan for backing NATO’s Baltic security strategy.