EU chief praises Türkiye’s vital NATO role, backs stronger EU ties

“NATO is about command and control capabilities and standards,” Rutte said, adding that the EU has a crucial role in areas including defence investment, military mobility, societal resilience and developing the defence industrial base.

Rutte said Europe must become a stronger partner within NATO and reduce over-reliance on the United States.

“We cannot continue as we did, being over-reliant on the United States; we need this much stronger Europe in a stronger NATO,” he said.

He said defence production is increasing in Europe, Canada and the United States, with more factories and production lines being opened. Still, he added that further expansion is needed as Russia has placed its economy on a war footing.

He praised Türkiye’s defence industry structure as an example of a broader national approach to security.

“Let me just give one example. Türkiye, how you have organised your defence industry with the Turkish Defence Industry Secretariat directly reporting to the president, you have about 3,000 defence industrial companies working closely together: small, medium-sized, the bigger ones, basically exporting all over NATO territory, and of course producing for Türkiye itself and also exporting outside NATO,” Rutte said.

“I think that’s a model which is very interesting, and I know that some other allies are studying it to see whether they could implement it in their country,” he added.