ANKARA, July 7: President Donald Trump arrived in Ankara Tuesday afternoon for the NATO summit, as the transatlantic military alliance was announcing billions in arms deals in an attempt to appease the mercurial US leader.
Trump, who has often upended NATO gatherings with complaints that European allies did not spend enough on their own defense, first sat down with Turkish leader RecepTayyipErdogan, a close ally who is hosting this year’s gathering and who warmly greeted the US president at a local air base and then an elaborate welcome ceremony.
“Sometimes you get along with the toughest people, like him,” Trump said, gesturing to Erdogan as the two sat down for their meeting. The US president repeatedly praised Turkey for its loyalty to the US, particularly during the war in Iran.
NATO as an organization does not own any weapons �" these are the property of the 32 member countries �" but it does have a fleet of 14 AWACS early warning radar surveillance planes that are about 50 years old, along with some newer surveillance drones.
A deal to replace the aging planes was announced Tuesday. Swedish manufacturer Saab will be supplying up to 10 new GlobalEye surveillance aircraft for a 10-nation consortium, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced.
“It’s a moment of great pride,” he said, noting that the twin-engine aircraft would be “made within the alliance for all the alliance.”
Some of the projects will be paid for with funds from a system of cheap loans for defense purposes set up by the European Union, comprising up to $170 billion raised on capital markets.
“We need to ensure that we are translating our economic might into military capabilities, putting the cash to work from defense plans to drones, from money to missiles and interceptors,” Rutte said.
Trump has branded NATO a “paper tiger” that would cease to function without American arms and leadership. At the forum on Tuesday, Michael Duffy, a US undersecretary of defense, said “the reality is that we need production increases across the board.”
“We will be looking to increase our exports to those who are looking to buy our equipment, and we’ll also be looking to partner with the expansion of production capacity here in Europe,” he said.
Representatives from 15 nations shook hands and patted shoulders on a vast podium under the NATO logo as they announced a multinational effort to buy air-to-air refueling and transport planes from Airbus.
Reuters add, 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 as the sum of various deal values was projected onto a screen.
He called for a defence industry "revolution" across the alliance, warning over Russia's massive military spending as well as China, North Korea and Iran.
"We don't have the luxury of time. We need capabilities now to ensure we remain ready. The security situation demands it," Rutte said. "The hum of machinery must become a roar."
It was a rallying cry for Western arms firms to ramp up investment to increase capacity, and for governments to place long-term orders and create the conditions for companies to thrive.
Europe's defence sector has often been criticised as fragmented and saddled with red tape and rivalries between companies and countries. That has left Europe more reliant on purchases of weapons from the United States.
Weak economic growth and the need to maintain generous state welfare provisions have also made defence spending a tougher sell in Europe.
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.
Saab shares were the biggest gainers in Europe, up more than 5% as investors bet on the company benefitting from European rearmament. Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock.
U.S. defence company Lockheed Martin and Germany's Rheinmetall a draft deal to jointly produce ATACMS missiles in Germany, a move that would mark the first non-U.S. manufacture of the short-range ballistic missile. �"Agencies
