NewsNovo

Erdoğan's Reinvention Earns Turkey a Seat at NATO's Head Table as Trump Heads to Ankara

7/7/2026

As President Donald Trump travels to Ankara for the upcoming NATO summit, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has positioned himself as the alliance's indispensable dealmaker — a role built less on fixed ideology than on two decades of calculated reinvention.

Trump has publicly called Erdoğan "a friend" and "a respected leader," signaling that a partnership once fractured by Turkey's purchase of Russian military hardware is being actively rehabilitated.

From S-400 Pariah to Strategic Linchpin The central unresolved dispute between Washington and Ankara remains Turkey's 2019 delivery of the Russian S-400 missile defense system.

That purchase triggered Turkey's expulsion from the F-35 fighter jet program and U.S. sanctions on Turkey's defense procurement agency.

Keep reading

Read the full story

Open on NewsNovo