Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday (22 May) on the sidelines of a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in the Swedish city of Helsingborg.
According to diplomatic sources, Fidan and Rubio discussed the agenda of the upcoming NATO summit in Ankara, including regional security challenges, alliance cooperation and efforts to boost NATO’s defence-industrial capabilities.
Speaking ahead of the ministerial meeting, Rubio said NATO must remain “good for all involved,” while voicing hope that the talks in Sweden would help lay the groundwork for the upcoming Ankara summit.
Preparations for the summit come amid growing debate within member countries over defence spending, military production and the U.S. role in the alliance.
Turkish officials have sought to present the upcoming summit as an opportunity to reinforce the alliance’s cohesion amid mounting geopolitical pressures, including the ongoing war in Ukraine, tensions in the Middle East and uncertainty over future U.S. military deployments in Europe.
The meeting in Helsingborg comes only weeks before NATO leaders convene in the Turkish capital in July for a leaders’ summit focused on enhancing collective defence and reaffirming the alliance’s unity.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Friday that the summit would play a key role in shaping the alliance’s future defence strategy, especially in areas such as military production and spending targets.
Speaking to reporters in Helsingborg, Rutte also praised Türkiye’s growing defence industry as an example for other NATO allies.
The summit is planned to take place over two days, on 7 and 8 July. It is likely to focus on NATO’s long-term deterrence posture and its goal of raising defence spending towards higher benchmarks agreed at previous meetings.
Türkiye, which last hosted a NATO summit in Istanbul in 2004, has sought to position the upcoming summit as an opportunity to reinforce unity across the alliance, while highlighting its own growing role in both regional security and defence manufacturing.
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