NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte will be in Türkiye on Tuesday for a two-day visit. He is scheduled to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Defense Minister Yaşar Güler in Ankara.
Rutte’s visit will likely focus on planning for this summer’s NATO summit which will be held in the Turkish capital.
A key partner of NATO, Türkiye will host the leaders’ summit of the alliance for the second time in more than two decades. Heads of state and top figures from member countries will attend the summit scheduled to be held on July 7-8. Some 6,000 participants are expected to participate in the event.
Preparations are underway in the Turkish capital for the event, where alliance leaders will likely discuss its future as conflicts proliferate across the world, forcing them to bolster defense expenditures. A series of panels are being held in NATO member countries as preparation for the summit, with the first one held in Spain. In Ankara, authorities renovate Etimesgut military airport, which will be the main transport hub for guests. The airport’s runways are being expanded, the Sabah newspaper reported on Sunday, while a guest house will be constructed to accommodate delegations.
The presidential complex and a congress hall in the capital will be the main venues of the summit. A press center is being set up at the complex where heads of state will hold news conferences. The Presidency of Defense Industries will also host a defense forum on the margins of the summit, at the ATO Congressium hall.
Türkiye this year marks the 74th anniversary of its admission to NATO and boasts the second biggest army of the alliance. It is the only country in NATO’s “southern flank” with a sizeable military power and a gateway to the Middle East and wider Asia. Security of the Black Sea also largely depends on Türkiye, especially amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which threatens maritime security.
In the last summit in The Hague last year, NATO members agreed to spend
Some 5% of their GDP in defense expenditures by 2035. Ankara will be the stage where the first progress reports on this massive investment drive are measured. A recent NATO report showed military spending rose by a fifth year-over-year in 2025 to $574 billion.
