Keir Starmer’s jaw-dropping gift from Turkish President at NATO – included live ammunition | World | News
President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan At the NATO summit in Ankara, Sir Keir Starmer was presented with a pistol and a box of live ammunition. Sir Keir told reporters that Erdogan had given all leaders at the summit a similar gift, with the recipient’s name engraved on each weapon.
Despite Mr Erdogan’s memo waiving export controls, the Prime Minister was forced to leave the gun in Türkiye for decommissioning as it was illegal to import it into the UK. The Turkish leader also praised the US President at the press conference he held at the end of the two-day summit. Donald Trump‘Positive approach’ to the sale of F-35 aircraft to Türkiye.
“Hopefully, when the F-35s are delivered to Türkiye, the whole world will say that America kept its promise.”
He also rejected the objections of Israel and Greece regarding the sale of F-35 warplanes to Türkiye.
Speaking at the closing press conference at the end of the two-day summit he hosted, the Turkish president said the opposition raised by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Greece’s Kyriakos Mitsotakis “has no place in my world.”
In his meeting with Erdogan on Tuesday, Trump announced that he would lift the sanctions imposed by the United States on Türkiye after Ankara purchased Russian missile defense systems in 2019. This move led to the country’s removal from the F-35 fighter jet program.
But on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he had not yet made up his mind on the F-35s.
Meanwhile, Erdogan also renewed Türkiye’s long-standing offer to mediate between Ukraine and Russia to end the war.
