00:00There's soft power, and then there's firepower.
00:03Here is detailed footage of the strange parting gift
00:06Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave to NATO leaders
00:09following this week's summit in Ankara.
00:13A vintage revolver engraved with the recipient's name
00:16with six live bullets.
00:18The present was a surprise to many.
00:22I learned about it from, I think it was Prime Minister Starmer.
00:27So I learned about it, and then of course my colleagues told me
00:29that we had this, and it's not what I expected.
00:35Hungarian Prime Minister Petr Medjar reacted similarly on X,
00:39calling the gift unusual.
00:42Carney and other leaders, including the EU's Ursula van der Leyen
00:45and Luxembourg's Prime Minister,
00:47said that the revolvers would be decommissioned immediately.
00:51The president of the European Commission added
00:53she would donate hers to a military museum.
00:55The gun gift also posed logistical challenges,
00:59as moving functional firearms between countries is far from simple.
01:04Many delegations simply didn't understand the unconventional choice
01:07after a summit focusing on wars in Ukraine and Iran,
01:10as well as thorny relations with U.S. President Donald Trump.
01:13Though diplomatic present exchanges are common.
01:16It struck me that my gift of maple syrup kind of undermatched
01:25the whatever it was, 357-galliber or whatever.
01:30The intention remains a mystery for now,
01:33as the Turkish presidency has yet to respond to journalists
01:35about the choice of door prize.
01:37One theory is that the engraved chrome revolver
01:40is meant to promote Turkey's defense industry,
01:43which Ankara has leveraged as both an export
01:45and a tool of foreign policy.
