President Donald Trump departed Joint Base Andrews late Monday evening for a NATO summit in Turkey.
Air Force One took off after 9:00 p.m., and is now set to carry the president to Etimesgut Air Base, with an ultimate destination of Ankara, Turkey, for the scheduled NATO summit on July 7 and 8.
During the summit, which is being hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leaders are expected to review progress on the alliance’s defense spending commitments and burden-sharing goals. Leaders from the 32 NATO member states are expected to attend.
Trump is expected to arrive in Ankara on the afternoon of July 7 and will be welcomed by Erdogan with a state arrival ceremony and honor guard review.
The two leaders are set to hold a bilateral meeting before joining the NATO leaders’ social dinner, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told reporters during a call previewing the summit.
On July 8, Trump will attend the official welcome ceremony and family photo, followed by a NATO leaders’ working session.
He is also scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on the sidelines, Kelly said.
Trump will hold a press conference before departing from Ankara.
This year’s summit comes amid continued pressure from the Trump administration for allies, particularly in Europe, to increase defense spending and assume a greater share of the alliance’s security responsibilities.
At last year’s summit in The Hague, Netherlands, NATO allies agreed to dramatically increase their defense spending targets to 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), a plan that Trump had long championed.
“The Ankara summit will measure progress against The Hague Defense Commitment,” U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker told reporters during the preview call.
Although overall spending has increased, progress remains uneven across the alliance.
“The United States remains a proud NATO member,” Whitaker said. “But we have responsibilities elsewhere in the world as the world’s only superpower.
“This Ankara summit is really the time for our allies to step up.”
Last year, Trump hailed the agreement as a “historic milestone” that “no one really thought possible.”
The 2025 spending numbers suggest momentum is building.
“Since The Hague, allies have responded and have committed nearly $139 billion in defense spending, roughly half of that being on American-made equipment and weapons and munitions,” Whitaker said during the call.
In June 2026, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte also announced that European allies and Canada increased their core defense spending by more than $90 billion in 2025 alone.