Ankara NATO summit will shape alliance’s future security strategy

As the summit opened on Tuesday, Fidan said Türkiye is ready to host NATO leaders under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a time of rapidly evolving global

ANKARA: Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has said the NATO summit in Ankara marks a defining moment for the alliance, stressing that the decisions taken during the two-day gathering will influence Euro-Atlantic security for years to come.

As the summit opened on Tuesday, Fidan said Türkiye is ready to host NATO leaders under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a time of rapidly evolving global security challenges.

In a message shared at the start of the meeting, Fidan said the summit is expected to go beyond addressing immediate threats and instead focus on preparing the alliance for a more complex and unpredictable security landscape.

He noted that while collective defence remains NATO’s primary mission, modern threats have become faster, more interconnected, and increasingly multi-domain, requiring the alliance to rethink how it measures military strength and preparedness.

According to Fidan, the emphasis should now be placed on deployable military capabilities, defence industrial capacity, and operational readiness rather than relying solely on traditional indicators of military power.

The Turkish foreign minister also underscored the importance of strengthening Europe’s contribution to NATO while warning that restrictions on defence-industrial cooperation among allies weaken the alliance’s overall effectiveness and delay collective responses to emerging threats.

He urged that European defence initiatives remain fully inclusive of all NATO members, arguing that greater cooperation is essential for maintaining the alliance’s unity and strategic resilience.

Fidan further stated that NATO must modernize the way it organizes cooperation to reflect today’s geopolitical realities, expressing confidence that the Ankara summit will help align the alliance’s structures with future security challenges.

He reaffirmed Türkiye’s commitment to building a stronger, more capable, and more resilient NATO capable of responding effectively to the changing global security environment.