US President Donald Trump. Photo: Collected

ANKARA, July 7, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - US President Donald Trump landed in Ankara 
on Tuesday for a NATO summit where leaders are hoping to woo him with 
promises on defence spending, an AFP correspondent said.

The US leader is due to hold talks with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip 
Erdogan at his sprawling presidential palace before joining an official 
leaders dinner ahead of the main session of the summit on Wednesday.

Trump landed at 1:51 pm (1051 GMT) after making his first foreign flight 
aboard his new Qatari-gifted Air Force One plane where he was awaited on the 
tarmac by a presidential guard dressed in blue.

On his first official visit to Ankara, Trump was then taken to Erdogan's 
presidential palace where guardsmen dressed in historical warrior costumes 
were waiting for him.

The palace boasts soaring atriums and grandiose halls, its interior decorated 
with onyx, marble and geometric patterns.

The opulence was not likely to be lost on Trump, with one room displaying an 
impressionistic painting of Erdogan and a cabinet with a crystal panther, an 
AFP correspondent said.

Ahead of his arrival, NATO allies have tried to showcase surging defence 
spending with new arms contracts worth billions in an effort to placate the 
mercurial US leader's fury over Europe's response to the war with Iran.

The two-day gathering comes a year after NATO members pledged to ramp up 
security-related spending to five percent of GDP under pressure from the US 
leader.

NATO chief Mark Rutte has insisted European countries are "delivering" by 
bolstering military budgets and moving to take more responsibility for the 
defence of their continent in the face of Russia.