ISTANBUL: Turkiye must be included in all of Europe’s defence structures and defence trade restrictions between NATO members must be removed, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday ahead of a key NATO summit.
His remarks come as Europe revamps its defences to counter Russia and the risk of a US pullback from NATO, which is to hold a summit in the Turkish capital Ankara on July 7-8.
“Turkiye’s indispensable contributions to European security are sometimes overlooked,” Erdogan told parliamentary delegates from all 32 NATO member states in Istanbul. He said Turkiye wanted “to participate in all defence and security initiatives” on the continent.
At issue is Turkiye’s access to the European Union’s 150-billion-euro ($176-billion) Security Action for Europe (SAFE) initiative, intended to strengthen European defence capabilities.
“We expect your support, lawmakers, for Turkiye’s inclusion in the defence and security initiatives announced by the European Union,” Erdogan told them.
Within SAFE, firms from non-EU countries such as Turkiye, Britain and the United States can only supply up to 35 percent of the component costs of weaponry funded by the scheme.
If Turkiye wants its companies to be able to tap a bigger part of the funds Ankara needs to sign a security partnership with the EU and then negotiate special access with Brussels — a process that would require approval from all 27 EU members. Greece has threatened to block such a move.
“Under SAFE, any third country can participate in a defence project up to a level of 35 percent. Any negotiations with a view to potentially increasing or lifting this 35 per cent cap … would require a bilateral agreement,” said Thomas Regnier, a European Commission spokesperson.
“For now, this is not an agreement we have concluded with Turkiye.”
Erdogan also urged NATO to remove all barriers blocking defence industry trade between alliance members.
“If we want to overcome the challenges we face, we need to remove obstacles to defence industry trade while ensuring a balanced and fair burden-sharing among allies,” he said.
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