President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan received German chancellor Angela Merkel late Thursday during the NATO summit in Belgian capital Brussels.

The meeting was expected due to recent tensions between Turkey and Germany over the Incirlik Air Base and the fact that Germany granted asylum to pro-coup Turkish soldiers working in diplomatic institutions based in Germany.

Prior to the meeting, Merkel asked Ankara to allow German lawmakers to visit the troops stationed at the air base.

Since 2015, Germany has stationed six Tornado surveillance jets and a tanker aircraft at Incirlik, along with around 260 personnel, providing intelligence and logistics support for anti-Daesh operations.

Situated in southern Turkey, the base is the main site for launching airstrikes against Daesh terrorists in Syria.

Turkey has been reluctant to give permission for German lawmakers to visit the base amid ongoing tensions between Berlin and Ankara.

Last June, the German parliament approved a controversial motion which described the deaths of Ottoman Armenians in 1915 as "genocide", sparking outrage in Turkey.

Most recently, earlier in May, Germany granted political asylum to a number of Turkish ex-soldiers suspected of involvement in last year's coup attempt, further straining relations.

Berlin has repeatedly underlined the importance of visit of German lawmakers with troops stationed abroad, saying the German army was not under the control of the government, but the parliament.