The 36th North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit officially opened in Ankara on Tuesday with the launch of the NATO Defence Industry Forum, marking the first time the event has been incorporated into the summit’s official program.
The forum, hosted at a hotel in the Turkish capital, is expected to be the largest defence industry gathering in NATO’s history, focusing on transatlantic defence production, industrial cooperation and investment.
According to Türkiye’s Anadolu Agency, the Defence Industry Forum, which had previously been held as a side event during NATO summits over the past four years, has now become a key component of the alliance’s official agenda.
NATO heads of state and government are scheduled to convene at the Presidential Complex on Wednesday, while meetings of NATO foreign and defence ministers are taking place on Tuesday.
A major announcement is expected during the forum, which features prominent speakers including Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz, Turkish Defence Minister Yaşar Güler and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Rutte are also expected to address participants, with discussions focusing on strengthening the alliance’s defence industrial capacity. Rutte has previously emphasized that expanding defence production among NATO allies will be one of the summit’s central themes.
On the sidelines of the summit, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to hold bilateral meetings with several allied leaders, including Rutte and European Council President António Costa.
The gathering has drawn a host of world leaders, among them US President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Slovak President Peter Pellegrini, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and Montenegro Prime Minister Milojko Spajić.
The summit agenda also includes working dinners for NATO foreign and defence ministers and a special foreign ministers’ session under the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI), established during the 2004 NATO Summit in Istanbul.
The ICI brings together Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, with a separate meeting between NATO and ICI foreign ministers also scheduled.
Türkiye is hosting the NATO Summit for the second time, 22 years after the landmark 2004 Istanbul Summit.
This year’s gathering comes amid growing regional and global security challenges, with allied leaders expected to focus on strengthening collective defence, enhancing industrial capabilities and addressing evolving geopolitical threats.
— KUNA
