Trump To Attend NATO Summit In Turkey Amid Alliance Tensions

U.S. President Donald Trump will attend the NATO meeting of heads of state taking place in Turkey in early July, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed on Wednesday, providing reassurance that will likely bring relief across alliance capitals.

While American presidents almost always attend NATO summits given Washington’s leading role in the alliance, questions had been raised about Trump’s attendance this year.

He has repeatedly expressed anger with NATO over what he described as its reluctance to help the United States with the war in Iran.

Speaking at a congressional hearing, Rubio touched on Trump’s frustrations, saying his main irritation was some members refusing to allow the U.S. to use military bases in those countries at a time of crisis.

Several NATO countries resisted supporting the U.S. military campaign against Iran, denying American military planes use of their airspace or declining to send naval forces to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz for energy tankers.

European leaders have broadly rejected direct involvement in U.S.-Israeli military operations against Iran, wary of being drawn into an unpredictable conflict whose aims they do not fully understand and one that is unpopular with their own citizens.

Trump has repeatedly called NATO a “paper tiger” and threatened to withdraw from the 32-member transatlantic alliance earlier this year, arguing that Washington’s European allies have relied on U.S. security guarantees while offering inadequate support for the bombing campaign in Iran.

Despite his disappointment, Rubio confirmed Trump would still attend. “The United States is still in the NATO alliance, and we’ll be there in Turkey to talk about all these topics.

The president himself will be attending the next NATO meeting of heads of state, where all these points will be made clear,” Rubio said.

A Summit Billed As Historic

Rubio described the upcoming gathering as potentially the most consequential in the alliance’s history. “I think the next meeting of NATO in Turkey in July is probably the most important meeting in NATO’s history, because there are some things here that need to be cleared up and fixed,” he said.

The summit will be held in the Turkish capital Ankara on July 7 and 8.

NATO leaders have met every summer since 2021, though media reported in late April that the alliance was considering ending its practice of holding annual summits in the future, partly to avoid a potentially tense encounter with Trump during his final year in office in 2028.

(with input from Reuters)