Turkey said on Monday that NATO allies should use the July summit in Ankara to reset ties with US President Donald Trump and prepare for a possible reduction in US involvement in the alliance.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Turkey believed Trump would attend the NATO leaders' summit on July 7-8 because of his personal "respect" for President Tayyip Erdogan, but added that he understood Trump's reluctance to come to the meeting.
Trump has criticized NATO for years and last week threatened to pull the United States out of the alliance over the refusal of European members to send ships to unblock the Strait of Hormuz near Iran. That added to friction within the bloc over his previous plans to buy Greenland.
Fidan said allies had long considered Trump's criticisms as rhetoric, but were now planning around the possibility of reducing US involvement and increasing their own defense capabilities.
"NATO countries should turn this Ankara Summit into an opportunity to establish ties with the United States on a systematic basis. If there is going to be a US withdrawal from some NATO mechanisms, there should be a plan and program to gradually remove this, so that no one is left undetected," he added.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said he understood Trump's frustrations with the alliance, but that the "vast majority of European nations" had been helpful to Washington's war effort in Iran.
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