July 7 (UPI) — President Donald Trump promised to eliminate sanctions on Turkey and renewed his threats to control Greenland on Tuesday on the first day of a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.
During a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Trump said he would lift sanctions first placed in 2019 after Turkey acquired a $2.5 billion missile defense system from Russia. The United States removed Turkey from its F-35 fighter jet program which would have sent more than 100 aircraft to Turkey.
“It’s time,” Trump said during a bilateral meeting with Erdoğan. “We don’t want to sanction friends.”
Trump said Tuesday he had “no concerns at all about anything” when asked about the S-400 anti-aircraft systems Turkey purchased from Russia, The New York Times reported.
“I would say the relationship with Turkey right now is better probably than it’s ever been,” Trump said.
He did, however, renew his desire to acquire Greenland from Denmark, threatening to remove all U.S. service members from Europe. He said Greenland “should be controlled by the United States,” CNBC reported.
Trump said Europe’s refusal to give in to his demands to control Greenland has hurt the United States’ relationship with NATO.
“Because Greenland doesn’t help Denmark. Denmark doesn’t spend money to really help Greenland, but it’s an important part for the United States,” he said.
“And when they wouldn’t go along with it, and with all the money we spend to help them with Russia — we don’t have to spend any money.
“We could remove all of our soldiers out of Europe. Because, as you probably noticed, Europe’s a very different place than it was 20 years ago.
“And [Europe] better be careful with immigration and energy. If they’re not careful with those two things, you’re not going to have a Europe anymore.”
Tuesday was the first of a two-day NATO meeting held in Ankara. The summit in Turkey’s capital is formally focused on reviewing progress made since last year, when the leaders of NATO’s 32 members agreed to raise their annual defense-related spending from the previous 2% target to 5% of gross domestic product by 2035 amid growing global security concerns.
Major new policy pronouncements are not expected, though several large arms deals are. The focus of the two-day summit will be on progress toward that defense-investment plan and how allies intend to spend the money to increase weapons production, cooperation and joint procurement.
Attention will also be on Trump and the U.S. commitment to NATO after his administration announced earlier this year that it would withdraw some American troops from Germany.
Long a demand of Trump’s, the increase in defense spending has done little to curb the American president’s long-held criticism of the alliance, which has intensified since NATO allies offered limited support for the U.S. war against Iran.
Trump departed Maryland’s Joint Base Andrews aboard Air Force One for Turkey a little after 9:40 EDT Monday, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and a number of aides with him.
Trump is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during the summit.
The two spoke Saturday, according to the Ukrainian leader, who said he called the U.S. president to congratulate him on the United States’ Independence Day.
“We are grateful to the United States for all the assistance we have received — from Javelins and Patriots to political support — and we deeply value that America stands by us in defending our independence,” he said online, adding that they had discussed the situation in the Ukraine-Russia war.
“We have agreed to continue these discussions during the NATO Summit in Ankara,” he said.
On the eve of the Fourth of July, Trump also spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin for nearly 90 minutes, according to the Kremlin, which said in a statement that they discussed “the Ukrainian settlement, including in light of Donald Trump’s upcoming participation in the NATO Summit.”
The Kremlin said Putin framed the current situation of the war as Russia “steadily advancing” despite Ukraine making recent gains and expanding its long-range attacks.
However, Russia has been targeting Kyiv with massive attacks leading up to the summit. Zelensky has been calling on allies for additional long-range weaponry, or the ability to produce the arms themselves, arguing that if Ukraine can batter Moscow how the Kremlin has been hitting Kyiv, an end to the war could be rapidly secured.
“We have proven to all our partners both the need, and more importantly, the possibility of providing greater protection of lives,” Zelensky said in a Monday statement.
“It is simply nonsensical that, in today’s world, production has still not been scaled up to the level that is actually needed to protect people from ballistic terror. We have long made the case that we are capable of producing such defensive weapons ourselves. If Ukraine were granted U.S. licenses to produce Patriots, our own production would be sufficient both to protect Ukraine and to help partners in need.”
The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War said Monday night that Russian forces were likely timing these large-scale strikes to send a political message ahead of the summit.
