WASHINGTON
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Thursday that the alliance will unveil tens of billions of dollars in new defense contracts at next month’s summit in Türkiye’s capital, Ankara, as member states seek to expand military production and strengthen collective security capabilities.
Speaking at the Atlantic Council Front Page event in Washington, Rutte said NATO allies must do more to translate their economic strength into military capabilities amid growing global security challenges.
“We need to ensure that we are translating our economic might into military capabilities,” Rutte said.
“This means overcoming fragmented national defense industries on basically the other side of the Atlantic, cutting red tape here in Washington and keeping innovation front and center across the alliance.”
Rutte said the July 7-8 NATO summit in Ankara would provide an opportunity to showcase progress in expanding defense industrial cooperation and increasing production capacity.
“Bottom line, the prospects are plentiful, and in Ankara we will provide a platform to showcase how we are seizing the opportunities and making this revolution a reality.
“We will announce tens of billions of dollars of new contracts,” he said, adding that defense companies across the alliance were ramping up output to meet growing demand.
Türkiye has about 3,000 defense industrial companies which work all over NATO territory, Rutte said.
“At the summit, we will have a big defense industry day on the first day, and you will see a massive amount of new contracts, MOUs, letters of intent, but also big contracts being signed, which will give a clear signal to our 1 billion citizens in NATO territory. We are really doing what is necessary,” he added.
Separately, Rutte hailed Türkiye’s defense company Aselsan.
“This spring, I spoke with talented young engineers at Aselsan, Türkiye’s largest defense electronics company. They are driving Türkiye’s defense industrial revolution, which will benefit every member of our alliance,” he added.
Ankara Summit possibly ‘even more important than The Hague’
Rutte also reaffirmed NATO’s support for Ukraine, saying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would attend the summit.
“President Zelenskyy will join us in Ankara,” he said. “We expect to show him and all Ukrainians that our support endures, and remind (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin that we are not going anywhere.”
Rutte said Ukraine is “doing “extremely well.”
“They are still ahead of the Russians when it comes to innovation, for example, in the drone and the counter drone technology. They are more and more successful in hitting essential energy infrastructure in Russia,” he added.
NATO needs to support Ukraine with all the air defense systems “we can give them,” he stressed.
When asked how the Ankara summit compares with other NATO summits, Rutte said it would be “more important” than last year’s gathering in The Hague as the alliance shifts its focus from making pledges to delivering on them.
“It was amazingly important that in The Hague. We agreed on the 5% (defense spending target) and to support Ukraine, and to ramp up defense production.
“This summit is about delivery, the credible trajectory, and the fact that last year we spent almost 20% more is already evidence that this is happening, and now we have to make sure that we have the credible path to the 5% and I’m seeing it absolutely happen,” he said.
However, Rutte said the Ankara summit would focus on translating those pledges into concrete action.
“I would say (Ankara Summit) is really important, and maybe even more important than The Hague, because it’s great to have the commitments — and The Hague was a big success — but then to deliver on the commitments — and that’s what I’m seeing is going to happen in Ankara — is even more important.
“In the end, Putin is not afraid of commitments, he’s afraid of implementing those commitments, and that’s exactly what we are doing … we will defend ourselves,” he said.
