By Enyichukwu Enemanna
US President Donald Trump has described his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan as “a great leader”, saying the two-day NATO summit in Ankara, Turkish capital was “very successful.”
“We just concluded a very successful NATO summit here in Türkiye,” Trump told a news conference on Wednesday as the NATO summit came to an end.
Trump thanked Erdogan for hosting the summit. “I want to thank President Erdogan, who’s really a great man. He’s a great leader. He’s a friend of mine, been a friend of mine for a long time. He’s a strong person, a very strong personality, and that’s why he runs such a successful and good country,” he added.
The summit brought together leaders of the 32-member alliance, as well as key allies to discuss Europe’s defence capacity, the alliance’s defence spending targets, military modernisation and continued support for Ukraine.
Trump said they discussed the target of spending 5% of GDP on defence.
He added that at last year’s NATO summit in The Hague, the allies achieved “an unprecedented agreement” to increase the benchmark annual defence spending from 2 percent to 5 percent of GDP.
Trump said that as a result of the commitment last year, defence spending by other NATO members surged by almost $150 billion in 2025.
“In the working session this morning, we discussed the progress other members are making towards the 5% target,” he said. “Some have truly answered the call, and others are making big changes and will be answering the call.”
The US leader said there was “tremendous unity” at the summit. “And I urge all nations to accelerate their plans to get the benchmark as quickly as possible. The benchmark is going to be that 5 percent number, that’s the number it should have been for years,” he added.
He again praised the summit, saying that “this was a tremendously successful summit. And again, I want to thank President Erdogan.”
