By Nevzat Devranoglu
ANKARA, July 13 (Reuters) – Turkey has informed Canada that it will participate in the Defence Security and Resilience Bank as a founding member, a Turkish official told Reuters on Monday.
Defence ministry sources said over the weekend that Turkey was still evaluating possible participation after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said at a NATO summit in Ankara last week that nine countries, including Turkey, had committed to the bank, in what was seen as a boost for the multilateral drive to help rearm allied nations.
“Turkey has informed Canada that it will participate in the bank,” the official said.
According to Carney’s statement last week, Albania, Belgium, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine had all pledged their support to the bank, which will be based in Canada.
The roster contained no heavyweight G7 nations other than Canada, potentially limiting the bank’s financial firepower, although Canada’s foreign minister, Anita Anand, told Reuters it would remain open to new members.
The bank’s purpose is to bolster the defence of like-minded allied nations by raising up to £100 billion ($134 billion) in cheap financing.
(Reporting by Nevzat Devranoglu; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)