President Donald Trump says he’s attending the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, for one reason: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Trump called the Turkish leader ‘a friend’ and ‘a respected leader’ while signaling that closer defense cooperation between Washington and Ankara could be on the horizon.

Turkey’s Strategic Value

Turkey has become increasingly difficult for the alliance to sideline as NATO confronts Russia, instability across the Middle East, and an increasingly contested Black Sea, analysts and former officials say. ‘Turkey is crucial to the Trump administration,’ former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey said.

Jeffrey argued that Turkey’s strategic value extends well beyond the relationship between the two leaders, describing Turkey as ‘essential to maintaining the U.S. perimeter around Eurasia’ because of its military strength, geographic position, and willingness to project power.

Defense Cooperation

NATO agreed to a defense spending target of 5% of GDP for all allies in 2025, after years of Trump complaining that European allies and their weak defense spending were ‘ripping off’ the U.S. Both Trump’s attacks on NATO and the Russian war on Ukraine changed the calculus.

Turkey fields NATO’s second-largest military after the United States. It controls the Bosporus and Dardanelles, borders Syria, Iraq, and Iran, and has built one of NATO’s largest defense industries. ‘There is no real security for NATO without full integration of Turkey,’ Rich Outzen, a former State Department advisor, said.

Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.