DAYTON, OHIO – Congressman Mike Turner (OH-10), head of the U.S. delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, was joined by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Montgomery County Commissioner Deborah Lieberman, and Dayton City Commissioner Chris Shaw in announcing that Dayton will host the 2025 Spring Session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
“Dayton is an internationally significant city relevant to national security and the perfect place to welcome the NATO Parliamentary Assembly to the Midwest. It will be a new experience for European parliamentarians as we show them that right here in the heartland, their deliberations will be welcomed, with the backdrop of the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords,” said Congressman Mike Turner. “We anticipate there will be slightly over 600 people who will come to our community. Over 250 of those will be actual delegates who are voting delegates of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly who will take up deliberations while they're here. This is an exciting event for us to showcase Dayton which we know is a wonderful, internationally significant city.”
“This is great news for Dayton and great news for the state of Ohio. To state the obvious, we would not be here today, and this would not be happening, but for Congressman Turner. His leadership over many, many years has been important not only for Dayton, not only for Ohio, but frankly for our entire country,” said Governor Mike DeWine. “The importance of NATO continues, and we’re just very, very delighted to be able to celebrate NATO and to serve as the host next year.”
“Thank you, Congressman Turner. This is exciting – exciting for the city, for the county, for the region,” said Montgomery County Commissioner Debbie Lieberman. “We know that you have worked for several years to bring this here, so we’re very thankful. I also want to thank your team because I know that they have hosted NATO and shown them how wonderful our community is, so I’m sure that was part of the decision. Congressman, thank you for doing this and for being a champion for us.”
“We’re just so excited to celebrate this event and just can’t thank Congressman Turner enough for this great work and advocacy and bringing NATO to Dayton, Ohio,” said Dayton City Commissioner Chris Shaw. “We are going to have the lights of the world on Dayton, Ohio, especially downtown Dayton. We just look forward to showing off all that we have to offer.”
Background:
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly was created in 1955 to serve as a link between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the parliaments of the now 32 NATO nations, with the most recent additions being Finland (2023) and Sweden (2024). The United States has not hosted a session since the Annual Session in Orlando, FL, in the Fall of 2003. The U.S. has never hosted a Spring Session of the Assembly until Dayton 2025.
Appointed by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy in January 2023, Congressman Mike Turner serves as the Head of the U.S. Delegation. Turner has been appointed to NATO PA since January 2009 and has served as Head of the U.S. Delegation since January 2011, when Republicans are in the majority of the U.S. House. Turner served as President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly from November 2014 to November 2016. He currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Defense & Security Committee of NATO PA.