NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has said that the alliance will unveil tens of billions of dollars in new defence 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 on Thursday, Rutte said NATO allies must do more to translate their economic strength into military capabilities amid growing global security challenges.
The NATO chief said the Ankara summit is “even more important” than last year's summit in The Hague, stressing the importance of delivering on the alliance's commitments.
"We need to ensure that we are translating our economic might into military capabilities," Rutte said.
"This means overcoming fragmented national defence industries on basically the other side of the Atlantic, cutting red tape here in Washington and keeping innovation front and centre across the alliance."
Expanding cooperation
Rutte said the July 7-8 NATO summit in Ankara would provide an opportunity to showcase progress in expanding defence industrial cooperation and increasing production capacity.
"We will announce tens of billions of dollars of new contracts," he said, adding that defence companies across the alliance were ramping up output to meet growing demand.
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."
