NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte speaks during the High Level Defence announcements at the NATO Summit Defence Industry Forum, on the sidelines of the NATO leaders’ Summit, in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday.Yves Herman/Reuters
NATO leaders began unveiling arms deals worth tens of billions of dollars in Turkey on Tuesday, driving home the message that they are heeding U.S. calls to spend more to defend Europe before a summit with President Donald Trump.
To upbeat tunes and slick videos at a defence industry forum in the capital Ankara, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte announced a series of initiatives, inviting a roll-call of representatives from NATO members to join the stage. The sum of various deal values was projected onto a screen.
“We can do more when we do it together. And we must do more of it,” Rutte said. “NATO allies are joining new multinational procurement coalitions. This really helps us get more of what you need across a range of capabilities.”
The deals, which had been mostly kept under wraps to make a splash at the summit, included European countries buying surveillance drones from U.S. company Northrop Grumman, and NATO buying planes from Sweden’s Saab.
NATO allies increased spending to around 4 per cent of GDP last year, Rutte says
The U.S. is also in talks with Germany and other nations about establishing joint production in Europe of missiles that are in high demand for the defence of Ukraine, a source told Reuters.
The move followed growing concern in Washington about the capacity of U.S. weapons manufacturers to meet demand, as both the war on Iran and the war in Ukraine depleted U.S. arms stocks.
Rutte also said NATO allies will invest more than US$40-billion in the next five years in their anti-drone capabilities.
The announcements add weight to Trump’s frequent criticism of Europe for insufficient defence contributions and over-relying on the U.S. to defend them through NATO, which has protected the continent since the early years of the Cold War.
Trump reinforced the message in a video previewing his visit on Truth Social, urging Europe to spend more on its own defence.
President and CEO of Saab Micael Johansson stands flanked by Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte during the High Level Defence announcements.Yves Herman/Reuters
Shift on F-35 planes to Turkey
Trump will fly in to meet Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and join fellow leaders of the military alliance for the summit, which begins with a dinner on Tuesday evening.
Rutte said on Monday Europeans had made “staggering” increases in defence spending in part due to fears of Russia, which have surged since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and also after Trump’s “extremely forceful” encouragement.
Last month, Rutte said NATO’s European members and Canada spent US$90-billion more on defence in real terms in 2025 than in 2024, to reach a total of more than US$570-billion – an increase of around 20 per cent.
In a major potential shift, Trump is also expected to tell Erdogan that he is prepared to allow the country to rejoin the F-35 stealth fighter program, sources told Reuters, an issue that has long been a sore point in bilateral ties.
Washington had imposed sanctions and removed Turkey from the F-35 fighter jet program after Turkey’s 2019 acquisition of the Russian S-400 air defence system.
Opinion: Why NATO needs to build a defence market
Iran war prompted Trump to revive criticism of NATO
Tensions within NATO have deepened since the U.S. attacked Iran in February. Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO members for insufficient support in the conflict, threatening to quit the alliance or disregard its collective defence pact.
European officials insist they largely honoured commitments to let the U.S. use their airspace and bases in their countries, despite not having been consulted about a war that roiled their economies and was deeply unpopular in Europe.
The U.S. has also announced troop withdrawals from Europe, cut the forces it assigns to NATO’s defence plans and launched a six-month review of its military presence on the continent.
European officials say they are braced for a repeat of some of Trump’s recent criticism and cannot be sure of a positive outcome. There is also Trump’s volatile relationship with some leaders, most recently seen in a feud with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
NATO members are expected to reaffirm support for Ukraine and pledge assistance of €70-billion in 2026.
Underscoring the stakes, Russia hammered the Kyiv region with missiles and drones on Monday, killing at least 28 people and exposing Ukraine’s critical shortage of U.S.-made air-defence interceptors.