The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on the 7th, during its summit, announced multiple arms procurement and defense investment plans totaling tens of billions of US dollars, involving counter-drone capability building, drone procurement, and more.
NATO Secretary General Rutte, at the Defense Industry Forum held during the summit, urged NATO member governments and Western military-industrial enterprises to increase investment and enhance production capacity.
He announced that in the next five years, NATO member states will invest more than 40 billion US dollars (about 162.9 billion Malaysian ringgit) to build counter-drone capabilities, and plan to increase the number of trained drone operators by fivefold by the end of 2027.
The procurement plan announced by NATO also includes Denmark, Finland, Germany, and Norway purchasing the "Triton" drones from US company Northrop Grumman. Eleven NATO member states will also purchase the "GlobalEye" early warning aircraft from Swedish company Saab, among others.
On the same day, US company Lockheed Martin and German company Rheinmetall signed a memorandum of understanding during the forum to promote joint production of Army Tactical Missile Systems in Germany. This will be the first time this type of short-range missile is produced outside the US.
Analysts pointed out that NATO's concentrated display of procurement projects this time is intended to respond to US President Trump's long-standing criticism of European allies for "insufficient defense investment." Trump has repeatedly demanded that European countries take on more defense responsibility within the NATO framework and reduce their reliance on US military protection.
The two-day NATO summit opened on the 7th in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. The main agenda of this summit includes increasing defense spending, expanding military-industrial production capacity, continuing to support Ukraine, and coordinating the sharing of security responsibilities between Europe and the US.