Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan gifted world leaders personalised revolvers with live ammunition after hosting the Nato summit in Ankara this week.
The unusual gift was presented to each head of state and several state officials in attendance from British prime minister Keir Starmer, Canadian leader Mark Carney to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Antonio Costa.
Accompanied by bullets and a cleaning kit, the guns were engraved with the names of each recipient.
Sir Keir is expected to have his firearm decommissioned before bringing it back to the UK and it remains with officials in Turkey at present, according to the BBC. Dutch prime minister Rob Jetten said that he would be doing the same.
Decommissioning a firearm means that the gun will no longer be capable of firing live ammunition.
The present also came with a certificate waiving export control to allow the politicians to leave the country with them.
It is likely to represent the country’s weapons industry as well as the discussions held at the summit focused on bolstering the alliance’s defences.
Meanwhile, a European Council official said Costa’s security team took the weapon for checks. “We will follow the Belgian procedures to bring it to Belgium and then we will store it in line with the security requirements imposed by the General Secretariat of the Council,” they said, according to Politico.
Attendees were also served Turkish tea and a variety of dishes from the country’s national cuisine including stone-baked pide with Trabzon butter and Hizan honey, sea bass, slow-cooked beef ribs accompanied by firik pilaf and a traditional dessert of Sütlü Nuriye with Maraş ice cream and pistachio foam according to Hurriyet Daily News.
Discussions at the summit centred on ramping up the alliance’s defence and military spending amid the background of the ongoing war in Ukraine and Iran.
Defence companies from Nato member states are reported to have agreed to more than $50bn in defence procurement and industrial agreements as allies sought to demonstrate their commitment to bolstering military spending.
The meeting has also been overshadowed by US president Donald Trump’s renewed interest in taking over Greenland, prompting Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen to vow to defend “every inch” of it.
After repeated pleas by Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky for US-made interceptors, Trump appeared to confirm he would provide Ukraine with a license and said that further talks on anti-ballistic missiles would ensue.
“We’re going to give a license to you to make Patriots. That’s pretty cool. This way, you can’t complain that we’re not giving them enough,” he said.
