Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday signed a Security and Defense Partnership document between Türkiye and the UK during talks on the sidelines of a NATO summit in the Turkish capital Ankara, while discussing bilateral relations as well as regional and global developments.
The closed-door meeting took place on the final day of the two-day NATO summit and came as Starmer is preparing to leave office after announcing his intention to resign last month.
According to Türkiye’s Communications Directorate, Erdoğan said cooperation and close dialogue between Türkiye and the UK are important and stressed that the two countries will continue to strengthen bilateral relations through new steps in the days to come.
Erdoğan also said recent global developments demonstrate the importance of preserving NATO’s role in collective security and maintaining the “transatlantic bond.”
He added that NATO allies that are not members of the EU should also be included in the bloc’s defense initiatives. Türkiye and the UK are both long-standing members of NATO, but not members of the European Union.
During the meeting, the two leaders signed the Security and Defense Partnership document between the Republic of Türkiye and the UK.
The summit in Ankara brought together leaders of the 32-member alliance and key partners to discuss Europe’s defense capacity, NATO’s defense spending targets, military modernization, and continued support for Ukraine.
The Ankara gathering marks the second NATO summit hosted by Türkiye, following the 2004 Istanbul summit, and also provided a platform for bilateral meetings between Türkiye and allied countries on political, security, and economic cooperation.
