Türkiye Links Istanbul NATO Track to Ankara Summit Defense Agenda
By Bosphorus News Geopolitics Desk
Türkiye is linking NATO's parliamentary track in Istanbul to the July 7-8 leaders' summit in Ankara, as Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the summit will carry a special defense-industry agenda and allied parliament speakers prepare to meet at Dolmabahçe Palace.
The Istanbul meeting will be held on June 28-29 under the host role of Turkish Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş. Twenty parliament speakers, three deputy speakers, NATO Parliamentary Assembly President Marcos Perestrello, NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska and senior allied representatives are expected to attend.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to meet participants during an official lunch and address the gathering. The program also includes a field visit to Baykar's National Technology Center, placing Türkiye's defense technology base inside the pre-summit NATO calendar.
The parliamentary meeting comes less than two weeks before NATO leaders gather at the Beştepe Presidential Compound in Ankara. Bosphorus News earlier reported that Türkiye will host NATO parliamentary leaders in Istanbul on June 28-29, adding a legislative and defense-industry channel before the leaders' summit.
Fidan, speaking in Ottawa after talks with Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand, called the Ankara meeting a "historic" summit and said defense spending had moved beyond political debate inside the alliance. He said the next stage would test which steps allies take in practice and how agreed increases are translated into spending.
The foreign minister said defense industry had become central to NATO planning after Russia's war in Ukraine and other conflicts forced allies to reassess production capacity. He said the Ankara summit would include a special defense-industry agenda and dedicated events, with Türkiye's Presidency of Defense Industries and related institutions working on the file.
That moves Ankara's role beyond summit hosting. Bosphorus News has tracked how NATO ministers moved force gaps, defense production and Cyprus-related southern-flank disputes toward the leaders' meeting after the June defense ministers' session placed readiness and industrial output on the pre-summit track.
The procurement layer has also moved forward. Bosphorus News reported this week that NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte expects allies to announce tens of billions of dollars in new defense contracts at the Ankara summit, turning spending pledges into a contracts and production debate.
Fidan's Canada visit added a bilateral defense and energy layer to the same agenda. He said Türkiye and Canada were working to deepen defense-industry cooperation, while also discussing critical minerals, liquefied natural gas, nuclear energy and small modular reactors after his visit to the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station.
The sequence gives Türkiye an Istanbul parliamentary platform before the Ankara summit moves the alliance into spending, procurement, readiness and strategy.
Sources: TRT, Anadolu Agency, Türkiye's Parliament, NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Reuters, Bosphorus News review and reporting.