NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has said the alliance’s Ankara summit will highlight defense industry cooperation and innovation, while praising Türkiye’s growing role in NATO’s industrial base.
Speaking at the Atlantic Council ahead of the July 7-8 summit, Rutte said allies would use the meeting to show that NATO is delivering on commitments made at last year’s summit in The Hague.
“At Ankara, we are going to show the world that we are delivering on the commitments we made in The Hague last year,” Rutte said.
He said the summit would focus on implementing what he described as “NATO 3.0,” a stronger European pillar within a stronger alliance.
Rutte recalled that allies had agreed in The Hague to invest 5 percent of gross domestic product in defense by 2035, calling the decision “historic.”
European allies and Canada spent an additional $1.2 trillion on defense between 2016 and 2026, he said, adding that defense investment rose by nearly 20 percent in 2025 alone.
Rutte said higher budgets now needed to be turned into concrete military capabilities, warning that the equipment needed for deterrence and defense was not being produced at the speed or scale required.
“What we need and what we are working to foster is a real transatlantic defense industrial revolution,” he said.
The NATO chief said the Ankara summit would provide a platform to show how allies were increasing production and cooperation.
He said “tens of billions of dollars” in new contracts would be announced, including agreements, letters of intent and major contracts.
Rutte said a major defense industry day would be held on the first day of the summit, adding that NATO’s industrial base should be seen as stretching “from California up to and including Türkiye.”
He said Türkiye has around 3,000 defense industry companies operating across NATO territory.
Rutte also referred to his visit to ASELSAN earlier this year, describing the company as Türkiye’s largest defense electronics firm.
“They are driving Türkiye’s defense industrial revolution, which will benefit every member of our alliance,” he said.
Rutte said Russia remained NATO’s current and long-term threat, while also pointing to China’s military modernization, North Korea’s nuclear program and Iran’s nuclear ambitions as security concerns.
He added that NATO would continue supporting Ukraine and said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was expected to attend the Ankara summit.
The NATO summit will be held at the presidential complex in Ankara on July 7-8.
