U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his NATO counterparts meet in Turkey to prepare a pivotal summit of alliance leaders next month that will set the course for future European security as America focuses on challenges elsewhere.

For days, President Donald Trump repeatedly floated the possibility of scrapping his Middle East travel schedule — one his team meticulously crafted for weeks — and adding a stop to personally mediate Ukraine-Russia peace talks in Turkey.

President Tayyip Erdogan told Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Ankara on Thursday that Turkey was ready to host him and Russia's Vladimir Putin for peace talks "when they are ready", his office said.