No other NATO Ally affected by violence more than Turkey, Stoltenberg says

"NATO is not present on the ground in Syria but I welcome all efforts to try to find a common agreed solution to address the horrendous violence, the very difficult situation we see in Syria, including the significant increase in refugees, people that are forced to flee their homes," Stoltenberg explained.

"So I expect many issues and many proposals to be discussed during the meeting now and the main issue is that we need common responses to common challenges like the situation in Syria," he added.

Underlining that NATO already provides support to Turkey, he said: "We have deployed the Patriot battery there - Spanish deployment, we have AWACS planes patrolling the skies, we have more port visits. Therefore, NATO is already present and we have what we called tailored assurance measures increased NATO presence in Turkey. Because Turkey is bordering Iraq and Syria, no other NATO Ally has suffered more terrorist attacks and has been more affected by the violence to the south than Turkey."

He concluded as follows: "I think it is very dangerous now to speculate too much because what we need first and foremost is an agreed solution. It is a political platform to move forward and therefore we need political commitments. If I start to speculate, I think I can only add to uncertainty and create more uncertainty, which is not what we need. Therefore, there has been no call for that so far and therefore I am not speculating." (ILKHA)