Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that Emmanuel Macron's warning that NATO was dying reflects a "sick and shallow" understanding, telling the French president "you should check whether you are brain dead."

The comments drew a swift rebuke from the French Foreign Ministry, which summoned Turkey's ambassador to Paris to protest over what a French presidential adviser called "insults."

Erdogan was speaking days ahead of a summit of the military alliance, which Macron has said is experiencing "brain death" because of U.S. unpredictability under President Donald Trump and strained ties with Turkey.