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U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to attend the NATO summit in Ankara next month, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Tuesday, even as the Israeli military's escalating campaign in Lebanon threatened to unravel the fragile diplomacy that the summit's host has been working to sustain.
"As far as we know, yes, he plans to attend," Fidan told Bloomberg TV in an interview. Trump and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had spoken by phone "several times over the past month, and on each occasion he indicated that he would attend," the minister said.
The July 7-8 Ankara gathering comes at a moment of particular uncertainty about Washington's long-term commitment to European security, as the Trump administration has continued to demand allies take on a larger share of collective defense and criticized European governments for not backing the U.S.-led campaign against Iran or supporting efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
"The U.S. has consistently pressed allies to increase defense spending and take greater responsibility for their own security," Fidan said.
"Europeans have heard that message and have already taken steps within NATO to raise defense budgets. We will review progress when leaders meet," he noted.
He said Washington had shown no actual indication of planning to walk away from NATO, separating the sustained rhetorical pressure from any concrete move toward disengagement.
Trump has questioned the value of the alliance during both of his presidential terms and, more recently, blamed European governments for failing to back the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran that began in February. European nations, which were not consulted before the military operation, have broadly withheld public support.
The more immediate diplomatic concern, however, according to the foreign minister, is Lebanon.
Fidan said Türkiye is actively assisting U.S.-Iran negotiations and that both sides were making what he described as "sincere" efforts to extend the ceasefire and eventually reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
But he made clear that Israel's deepening ground offensive in Lebanon posed the single greatest threat to that progress.
"I am confident that the Americans and the Iranians, they are sincere. They want to have a ceasefire and they want to see the opening of the Strait of Hormuz," Fidan said.
"But I'm not sure about the intentions of Israel," he noted.
Iran had underlined that concern sharply on Monday, announcing it is halting negotiations with Washington over Israel's actions in Lebanon and threatening to further restrict maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, close the Bab el-Mandeb strait at the southern end of the Red Sea, and strike Israel directly.
Trump sought to contain the escalation, holding a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and speaking with Hezbollah representatives, saying afterward that both sides had agreed to stop firing at one another.
Israel's strikes on Lebanon continued regardless.
Tehran has said that a genuine ceasefire in Lebanon is a precondition for any lasting agreement with Washington. The U.S.-Iran ceasefire has been in place for nearly two months but has been repeatedly tested by both sides.
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