\n
![\"Ankara](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/6a4b3cf87c43e629aa253f28.jpg\")
<\/p>\n ANKARA
\n <\/p>\n
Police patrol in front of a banner ahead of the NATO Summit in Ankara, July 5, 2026. (AP Photo\/R\u0131za Ozel)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
T\u00fcrkiye<\/a> is set to host the 36th NATO<\/a> Summit<\/a> of Heads of State and Government in Ankara on July 7-8, bringing together leaders from the alliance\u2019s 32 member states.<\/p>\n The summit program is scheduled to begin on July 6 with a press conference by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the International Media Center in Be\u015ftepe.<\/p>\n The Ankara meeting will be the second NATO summit hosted by T\u00fcrkiye, following the 2004 summit in Istanbul.<\/p>\n The agenda is expected to focus on alliance unity, defense spending, Ukraine, regional security and defense industry cooperation.<\/p>\n A NATO Defense Industry Forum will be held on July 7 at NATO Congresium, where allied officials and defense industry representatives are expected to take part.<\/p>\n Rutte is scheduled to address the forum alongside Vice President Cevdet Y\u0131lmaz and Defense Minister Ya\u015far G\u00fcler.<\/p>\n The same day, NATO foreign ministers are expected to meet foreign ministers from countries taking part in the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n T\u00fcrkiye will also host a reception for defense ministers at the Defense Ministry\u2019s Ay Y\u0131ld\u0131z campus, with defense ministers from Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea also expected to attend.<\/p>\n President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan and first lady Emine Erdo\u011fan are scheduled to host a reception and dinner for leaders and their spouses on July 7.<\/p>\n On July 8, Erdo\u011fan and Rutte will officially welcome heads of state and government before the leaders\u2019 family photo and the North Atlantic Council meeting.<\/p>\n The summit is expected to close with Rutte\u2019s press conference later that day.<\/p>\n U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to arrive in Ankara on July 7 and attend the leaders\u2019 dinner before joining the summit session the next day.<\/p>\n The White House said Trump also plans to meet Erdo\u011fan on Tuesday and hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa on Wednesday.<\/p>\n U.S. officials said Trump\u2019s meeting with Zelensky would focus on efforts to end the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n Turkish authorities have stepped up security across Ankara ahead of the summit, with more than 56,000 personnel assigned to duty.<\/p>\n Around 3,000 journalists and media workers have also sought accreditation to cover the summit, according to Turkish officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANKARA Police patrol in front of a banner ahead of the NATO Summit in Ankara, July 5, 2026.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,137,337],"class_list":["post-5963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-nato","tag-summit","tag-trkiye"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}