President Trump plans to hold a press conference Wednesday, the final day of the NATO summit, after the U.S. launched more strikes on Iran that the alliance’s secretary general called “absolutely necessary.”
“It was a very strong response, and I’m with you on this,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said of the strikes, which were in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
The support from NATO came as Mr. Trump has been urging members of the alliance to spend more on their defense.
NATO’s annual two-day summit is set to wrap up Wednesday in the Turkish capital of Ankara, where Mr. Trump made it clear the U.S. and Turkey are better friends than some more traditional NATO allies. The president has pressed NATO states to spend 5% of their annual GDP on defense, and has chafed at some members that he believes are not carrying their weight. He has also criticized several NATO members for not getting involved in the U.S.-Iran conflict, and continues to toy with acquiring Greenland.
Mr. Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. should help Turkey, a country that has “frankly has been more helpful to the United States than many other more traditional countries.”
On Tuesday, the Mr. Trump announced his plans to ease sanctions on Turkey, and said he’s considering allowing the country to reenter the the F-35 fighter jet program once again. Turkey was kicked out of the program by the Trump administration in 2019 over its use of Russian defense technology, seen as a national security concern. In 2020, Congress passed legislation effectively prohibiting the transfer of F-35 aircraft to Turkey.
While some Republicans are still expressing concerns over the possibility of Turkey acquiring F-35s, Mr. Trump said he doesn’t have any concerns about Turkey, and praised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“I have no concerns at all about anything,” he said. “I mean, he’s a leader of a country that he’s made a much better country, much more powerful country. You see it — I mean, it’s beautiful, you get off, the roads are beautiful, it’s an amazing thing. No, I have no concerns about anything having to do with Turkey.”
Tensions with Iran are also on the rise, and the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding is in jeopardy, after Iran struck tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. responded by revoking a general license for Iran to sell oil. For Iran, allowing the sale of Iranian oil was a critical component of moving forward with negotiations.
Mr. Trump is meeting with a number of world leaders on the sidelines of NATO, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Russia’s war in Ukraine is another key topic for NATO allies, with no resolution in sight.
“It’s too bad it took so long,” Mr. Trump said Tuesday about Ukraine. “But I think there’s going to be … something’s going to come out.”
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