Ursula von der Leyen will donate the pistol received from Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to a military museum in Brussels

Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, announced that the personalized pistol received as a gift from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will be donated to a military museum in the capital of Belgium, Brussels, after the weapon is transported and stored under safe conditions. The deputy spokesperson for the European Commission, Olof Gill, confirmed that von der Leyen thanked Erdoğan for the gift, given at the end of the NATO summit in Ankara.

The weapon will be rendered inoperable so that it cannot be used with live ammunition, according to Belgian legislation. Additionally, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer mentioned that the attending leaders each received a personalized pistol, but he chose to leave the weapon in Turkey to avoid legal issues with importing it into the UK. Discussions between von der Leyen, Costa, and Erdoğan addressed the bilateral relations between the EU and Turkey, including defense and migration issues.