CHICAGO
The two-day summit takes place at the McCormick Congress Center.
Turkey is being represented at the summit by President Abdullah Gul. He is accompanied by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and National Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz.
Among the summit's most important agenda items are Afghanistan, smart defense system, ballistic missile defense system, partnerships and NATO's deterrence as well as defense structure.
NATO missile defense system reaches interim capability
NATO leaders in Chicago for a NATO summit on Sunday announced that the NATO missile defense system, whose radar was deployed in Kurecik town of Turkey's south-eastern province of Malatya, had reached interim capability.
Within this framework, US President Barack Obama told his Secretary of Defense to transfer the operational control of the US radar to NATO.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the interim capability which meant assets such as radars, interceptors and Aegis ships were now under the unified command of NATO, providing security against missile threats.
Turkish FM receives representatives of Balkan communities
Foreign Minister Davutoglu received representatives of Balkan communities in Chicago as part of his program out of the NATO summit.
Representatives of Balkan communities informed Davutoglu about their works in the United States and said they viewed Turkey as a friend of the Balkan peoples.
Representatives of Balkan communities told Davutoglu that they had close relations with the Turkish community living in the United States and they thanked Davutoglu for a speech delivered on Saturday evening at a meeting organized by the Macedonian diaspora.
Davutoglu, in his part, said that the Balkans were very important for Turkey and Turkey supported NATO membership of Balkan countries.
