President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended the meeting of the North Atlantic Council at the level of Heads of State and Government on the sidelines of the bloc’s summit in Washington on Wednesday.
Erdoğan, who’s also meeting other leaders on the sidelines of the summit, was welcomed by U.S. President Joe Biden and NATO’s outgoing Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
Following the welcome ceremony, Erdoğan took an annual family photo with other NATO counterparts.
Erdoğan held his first bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit in the U.S. with Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Before leaving for the U.S., President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Tuesday Türkiye could not get what he wanted on the Palestine-Israel conflict from the military bloc and he would bring this issue due to the spotlight at the alliance’s summit. He said that he’d warn NATO on the issue.
The president is a staunch advocate of the Palestinian cause that seeks reinstatement of lands occupied by Israel and during the latest round of conflict, he raised the voice of resistance movement Hamas. Türkiye is engaged in global diplomatic efforts to maintain an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, where thousands of innocent civilians were slaughtered in the Israeli attacks, and, later, a lasting, two-state solution.