ANKARA, June 24 (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that he would “most likely” hold bilateral talks with U.S. President Donald Trump when the U.S. leader comes to Ankara for a NATO summit next month.
Turkey will host 32 NATO leaders, as well as officials from the alliance’s partners in the Gulf and Asia-Pacific region, on July 7-8 amid tensions within the alliance over burden-sharing, defence spending, and U.S. complaints over allies’ involvement on re-opening the Strait of Hormuz during the U.S.-Iran war.
Erdogan has previously said Trump’s attendance at the summit was important to show unity within the alliance.
Asked by reporters in parliament if the two leaders planned to meet separately outside of the summit on July 7-8, he said “it will most likely happen”, but did not elaborate further.
The two leaders have forged a close relationship since Trump returned to the White House in 2024, increasing cooperation on a range of regional issues and resolving some outstanding disputes like Turkish state lender Halkbank’s sanctions-evasion case.
Burhanettin Duran, Erdogan’s communications director, told representatives of Turkish media in Ankara that burden-sharing would be among the key agenda points at the Ankara summit.
“The changing security architecture is pushing NATO allies to re-evaluate their defence spending. In that framework, Turkey aims to reach the 3.5% + 1.5% target by the end of 2030,” Duran said, according to a readout of his comments on Wednesday.
Representatives of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, a partnership forum with some Middle Eastern countries, as well as Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Australia – known as the Indo-Pacific Four – will also attend the summit at the foreign ministers level.
(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever and Jonathan Spicer; Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Daren Butler and Louise Heavens)
