Trump tells Erdogan he plans to visit Turkey for Nato summit

US President Donald Trump has told his Turkish counterpart that he plans to attend the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) summit in Ankara in July, multiple sources familiar with the conversations told Middle East Eye.

In April, Trump said he was seriously considering withdrawing the US from Nato, adding that he was disgusted with the alliance.

However, the US president struck a different tone during a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on 20 May, saying he would visit Ankara to attend the meeting.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said over the weekend that Erdogan had spoken with Trump multiple times in the past month, and that in none of those calls did Trump suggest he would not attend.

Some reports have suggested that Erdogan also hopes to meet Trump in Los Angeles during the US–Turkey World Cup match scheduled for 25 June.

Sources familiar with the matter told MEE that Erdogan often likes to attend football matches to support the Turkish national team, and that if he goes to Los Angeles, he may seek to meet Trump and watch the match with him. However, the sources said no decision on such a visit has yet been made.

Trump is expected to honour his commitment to visit Turkey, after Erdogan travelled to Washington during Trump's first and second terms, and the US president promised a reciprocal visit.

However, officials said Trump is known for acting impulsively and that nothing has been finalised. MEE has contacted the White House for comment.

Since earlier this year, Trump has sent mixed signals, saying he would send 5,000 US troops to Poland just weeks after ordering the same number of troops withdrawn from Europe.

Most important summit in decades

European officials have since begun placing far greater importance on the Nato summit in Ankara.

“If he comes, there may be mayhem and shouting matches,” one European official told MEE, “However, if he doesn’t come, it would be detrimental to the future of the alliance.”

Other European officials believe the summit could be the most important in decades, underscoring the need to discuss the alliance’s future at a time when the US is signalling that it may no longer protect Europe against external threats.

Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte and other European leaders are expected to try to persuade Trump of the alliance’s importance to transatlantic security.

Others believe that what was set in motion under Trump may be leading toward an inevitable conclusion, and that the best Turkey, as the host nation, and other allies can do is seek a roadmap from Washington for a gradual US withdrawal from Europe rather than an abrupt one.

“We need a new framework that could both accommodate Trump’s wishes and address Europe’s security needs,” one European diplomat said. “But it would take years.”