At the end of the NATO summit held in Ankara, the host President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave each attending leader a pistol engraved with their name, accompanied by a box of ammunition. Erdogan also attached a note exempting the weapons from Turkish export customs controls, thus allowing their transport out of the country.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer recounted the episode to journalists on his flight back to London. He chose to leave the pistol in Turkey, as bringing a firearm into the United Kingdom would have been illegal.

German Chancellor Merz and Dutch Prime Minister Jetten also left their guns in Turkey.

According to the news agency ANSA, Canadian Prime Minister Carney boarded the pistol but without the ammunition.

A different choice was made by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who brought the weapon to Italy. The gun was registered at Palazzo Chigi, as is the procedure for all gifts received by the Prime Minister, and entered the inventory of the Presidency as a protocolled item.

The Ankara summit primarily addressed the increase in military spending among allied countries.