U.S. President Donald Trump thanked President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday for successfully hosting the NATO summit.
Trump hailed Erdoğan as "a great leader" and described the two-day summit in the capital, Ankara, as "very successful."
"We just concluded a very successful NATO summit here in Türkiye," Trump said at a news conference as the two-day NATO summit ended in the Turkish capital.
Trump thanked Erdoğan for hosting the summit.
"I want to thank President Erdoğan, who's really a great man. He's a great leader. He's a friend of mine, been a friend of mine for a long time. He's a strong person, a very strong personality, and that's why he runs such a successful and good country," he added.
The summit in Ankara brought together leaders of the 32-member alliance as well as key partners to discuss Europe's defense capacity, the alliance's defense spending targets, military modernization, and continued support for Ukraine.
Trump said during the summit that they discussed the target of spending 5% of GDP on defense.
"In the working session this morning, we discussed the progress other members are making toward the 5% target ... some have truly answered the call and others are making big changes, and will be answering the call ... I urge all nations to accelerate their plans to get to the benchmark as quickly as possible," he added.
Trump said there was "tremendous unity" in the summit.
"And I urge all nations to accelerate their plans to get the benchmark as quickly as possible. The benchmark is going to be that 5% number; that's the number it should have been for years," he added.
