US President Donald Trump is scheduled to arrive at the NATO summit in Türkiye on Tuesday. His first meeting will be with summit host Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Trump will also meet Syrian ⁠President Ahmed al-Sharaa and hold a press conference, the White House said.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly confirmed the meetings in a call with reporters while previewing the upcoming summit in Ankara, where Trump plans to meet with President Erdogan on Tuesday, AP reported.

A senior US official who briefed reporters about the trip said Trump will also meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy while in Türkiye to make a renewed push to end the war in Ukraine.

"The battlefield has clearly frozen over the last couple of months, and neither side is making a lot of progress," the official said. "The president feels a real sense of urgency to try to bring this to a stop."

Türkiye's Communications Director Burhanettin Duran has hosted international journalists in Ankara, explaining the nation’s strategic use of its culinary heritage to foster global understanding ahead of the July 7-8 NATO summit.

“Sometimes, a shared meal on a table can say what pages of documents cannot,” Duran said at the dinner in the Turkish capital.

He emphasised that the personal nature of sharing food often facilitates deeper mutual understanding than formal diplomacy.

Duran detailed the programme titled "Türkiye's Gastrodiplomacy Model: The Heritage Table," characterising cuisine as one of the “most direct, most sincere, and most enduring expressions of soft power.”

Guido Crosetto says NATO preparations are complete and expects member states to fulfil their commitments during the Ankara summit.

The two-day 2026 NATO summit is set to open on July 7 at the Beştepe Presidential Compound in Ankara, Türkiye.

Türkiye is hosting the summit for the first time in 22 years, bringing world leaders to Ankara at a time of deepening security challenges and shifting burden-sharing within the alliance.

Following the 2004 NATO Istanbul Summit, which became one of the key meetings in the alliance’s post-Cold War transformation, Türkiye will once again host NATO leaders in what officials describe as an "age of uncertainties."

The summit is expected to make Türkiye’s diplomatic weight more visible, serving not only as a gathering of world leaders but also as a platform demonstrating Ankara’s growing influence within NATO.