Trump told reporters on June 24 that the main reason he is attending the NATO summit in Ankara is Erdogan himself, calli...

Trump told reporters on June 24 that the main reason he is attending the NATO summit in Ankara is Erdogan himself, calling the Turkish president a "friend" and a "respected leader." He also signaled that US-Turkey defense ties could be deepened in the coming months. The summit is set to be one of the most strategically loaded NATO meetings in years. The comments mark a sharp turnaround from just a few years ago. After Turkey received the Russian S-400 air defense system in 2019, Washington booted Ankara from the F-35 program and imposed sanctions on Turkey's defense procurement agency in 2020. Turkey was widely seen as NATO's most difficult ally. The shift reflects Turkey's growing strategic weight inside the alliance. Turkey holds NATO's second-largest military after the US, controls the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, and borders Syria, Iraq, and Iran. Former US Ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey told Fox News that Turkey is "indispensable for maintaining the American strategic perimeter around Eurasia." Jeffrey argued Turkey's support was decisive in keeping Ukraine in the fight, pointing to Ankara's enforcement of the 1936 Montreux Convention, which blocked additional Russian warships from entering the Black Sea, its early delivery of Bayraktar drones to Ukraine, and its mediation role between Kyiv and Moscow. "You cannot contain Russia in the Black Sea without Turkey," he said. White House spokesperson Ana Kelly confirmed Trump and Erdogan will hold a private bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Ankara summit. Hudson Institute senior fellow Can Kasapoglu noted that as NATO refocuses on collective defense against peer threats, military contributors gain leverage inside the alliance. "States that bring real military power to NATO will be treated better," he said. Not everyone agrees that Turkey's strategic value outweighs its tensions with Western allies. Critics point to Ankara's public support for Hamas after October 7, 2023, its retention of the S-400, and Turkey's moves to deepen ties with BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, groupings dominated by China and Russia. #NATO #Turkey #USForeignPolicy