NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte announced that billions of dollars in new defense contracts will be unveiled at the NATO summit in Ankara on July 7-8. Speaking at the Atlantic Council Front Page event in Washington, Rutte emphasized that NATO allies must make greater efforts to translate their economic strength into military capabilities. A comprehensive defense industry day will be held on the summit's opening day, featuring numerous new contracts, memoranda of understanding, letters of intent, and major agreements to be signed.

Rutte highlighted NATO's efforts to expand defense production capacity and industrial cooperation. In his remarks, he stressed the need to convert economic power into military capabilities, overcome fragmented national defense industries across the Atlantic, remove bureaucratic obstacles in Washington, and maintain innovation as a priority across the alliance. Rutte noted that Turkey has approximately 3,000 defense industry companies operating throughout the NATO region. He stated that the Ankara summit would provide an opportunity to demonstrate NATO's progress in expanding defense industrial cooperation and increasing production capacity.

Rutte specifically praised ASELSAN, Turkey's largest defense electronics company. He recalled meeting talented young engineers at ASELSAN last spring and noted that these engineers are driving Turkey's defense industrial revolution, which will benefit all NATO members. This recognition underscores the growing importance of Turkish defense industry companies within the NATO ecosystem and the international acknowledgment of Turkey's localization efforts.

NATO's strategy to increase defense industrial capacity aims to strengthen the alliance's collective defense posture amid global security challenges. Rutte noted that NATO allies increased defense spending by nearly 20 percent last year, and this trend is continuing. The Ankara summit is intended to demonstrate the implementation of the commitment made at last year's The Hague summit to increase defense spending to 5 percent. Rutte emphasized that the Ankara summit may be more significant than The Hague summit because implementing commitments is more important than making them.

Rutte reiterated NATO's support for Ukraine, announcing that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will attend the Ankara summit. He stated that Ukraine is performing well in defense, particularly in unmanned aerial vehicle and counter-unmanned aerial vehicle technology where it maintains an advantage over Russia, and is increasingly successful in striking Russian energy infrastructure. Rutte stressed that NATO must support Ukraine with all available air defense systems.