Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who is meeting in Brussels this week with countries involved in Operation Inherent Resolve, is pressing Turkey for additional help fighting ISIS. Carter on Tuesday met independently with Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik during the NATO Defense Ministerial summit in Brussels, where they talked about Turkey’s role in the counter-ISIS coalition and increased border security efforts, according to a readout of the meeting. Carter has publicly called on Turkey to “do more” in the fight in neighboring Syria. Carter also was due to have independent meetings with defense ministers from the United Kingdom and France to discuss counter ISIS efforts, Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said. The ministers of NATO countries are meeting in Brussels to ready for the organization’s Warsaw Summit in July.
Amid NATO’s continued push to ramp up air defenses in Eastern Europe, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall swung by seven allied countries to boost relations last week, including those on Russia’s and Ukraine’s doorstep.