US President Donald Trump has arrived in Ankara for NATO’s annual summit, kicking the meeting off with a show of friendship for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and threats of US military withdrawal for the bloc’s European members.
Trump touched down in Türkiye on Tuesday, at a time of heightened acrimony between Washington and the Europeans. Trump has pushed his NATO allies to hike defense spending to 5% of GDP, a figure agreed upon at last year’s summit, but one increasingly difficult to meet as European economies stagnate.
The US president told reporters that he is “very disappointed with NATO” for not meeting this target and backing the US-Israeli war on Iran, and suggested that he could announce further drawdowns of US forces in Europe in response.
Trump said he only decided to travel to the summit out of respect for Erdogan, who he hailed as “a very strong leader.” Despite Erdogan’s condemnation of the war on Iran and the growing tensions between Türkiye and Israel, Trump announced that he would lift sanctions on Ankara over Erdogan’s purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system, and would consider reversing his ban on selling F-35 fighter jets to Türkiye – a move that would likely anger Israel.
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has used the summit to ask for more weapons from his EU backers, this time anti-air systems capable of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles. One day earlier, the Russian military launched a combined missile and drone assault on Kiev, destroying weapons factories and other military infrastructure.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who infamously referred to Trump as “daddy” during last year’s meeting in The Hague, is using the Ankara summit as an opportunity to prove his value to Trump.
“President Trump fully expects that all allies will step up immediately and get on the path to 5% and do it with urgency,” he said on Monday, telling reporters that he plans to flatter the US president by bringing up “the Trump trillion” – his term for the trillion dollars that Canada and NATO’s European members have spent cumulatively on defense since Trump’s first term in office began in 2017.
Welcome to RT’s live coverage of the NATO bloc’s most important yearly meeting. Trump received a lavish welcome and a cavalry escort from Erdogan, and responded by heaping praise upon the Turkish president. Here’s a quick recap of what he said:“Turkey has been in many ways much more loyal than other countries that we think would be loyal”“I think it’s been from the very beginning… just a chemistry that works between us’Trump also shot down Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempts to sour relations between the US and Turkiye before the summit began. “They talk openly about conquering Jerusalem…they supported Hamas and did not lift a finger against Iran,” Netanyahu told Fox News on Monday.
Trump praises US-Turkey ties:'In many ways, much more loyal than other countries we thought would be loyal'Did Netanyahu's anti-Erdogan pitch fall flat with 47? pic.twitter.com/8dwpznAHuW
“I hear some people saying about their relationship with Israel,” Trump responded. “They could have gotten into the fight on the other side. They didn’t do that. They are a nation that has been very, very good.”
Welcome to RT’s live coverage of the NATO bloc’s most important yearly meeting. Trump received a lavish welcome and a cavalry escort from Erdogan, and responded by heaping praise upon the Turkish president. Here’s a quick recap of what he said:“Turkey has been in many ways much more loyal than other countries that we think would be loyal”“I think it’s been from the very beginning… just a chemistry that works between us’Trump also shot down Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempts to sour relations between the US and Turkiye before the summit began. “They talk openly about conquering Jerusalem…they supported Hamas and did not lift a finger against Iran,” Netanyahu told Fox News on Monday.
Trump praises US-Turkey ties:'In many ways, much more loyal than other countries we thought would be loyal'Did Netanyahu's anti-Erdogan pitch fall flat with 47? pic.twitter.com/8dwpznAHuW
“I hear some people saying about their relationship with Israel,” Trump responded. “They could have gotten into the fight on the other side. They didn’t do that. They are a nation that has been very, very good.”
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