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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed Wednesday that President Donald Trump will personally attend the NATO leaders' summit in Ankara next month, hardening signals from Türkiye's foreign minister a day earlier that the president planned to make the trip.
The July 7-8 gathering in Ankara comes at a moment of acute strain within the Western alliance, with the Trump administration pressing allies on defense spending while simultaneously confronting a fragile diplomatic effort to contain the fallout from the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had indicated Tuesday that Trump's attendance was expected, telling Bloomberg TV that the two leaders had spoken by phone "several times over the past month," and that Trump had signaled his intention to attend on each occasion.
"As far as we know, yes, he plans to attend," Fidan said. Rubio's statement on Wednesday went further, offering a direct White House-level confirmation.
The Trump administration has repeatedly demanded that NATO members assume a greater share of collective defense costs and has criticized European governments for declining to back the U.S.-led military campaign against Iran, which began in February without prior consultation with European allies.
Rubio, at a NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Helsingborg, Sweden, in late May, described Trump's displeasure over the alliance's response to Iran as something that "will have to be addressed" in Ankara, and suggested the summit could rank among the most consequential in NATO's history.
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