At a meeting of NATO defense ministers, Ankara emphasized its readiness to continue humanitarian assistance and the participation of Turkish armed forces in a possible multinational mission in Gaza. This was stated by Turkish Minister of National Defense Yashar Güler, speaking with an assessment following the meetings of the heads of the NATO Ministry of Defense and the Contact Group on Ukraine.
The Minister noted that at the meetings held at NATO headquarters in Brussels, issues of deterrence and the defense position of the Alliance, support for Ukraine and other aspects of security were discussed.
He recalled that Turkey is one of the five largest contributors to NATO forces.
“We emphasized our contribution to NATO operations and missions, efforts to equip the Turkish armed forces with modern systems, determination to achieve the goal of 5% of defense spending, satisfaction with the ceasefire in Gaza and hope that it will be the beginning of a just solution based on two states We stressed the importance of full compliance with the truce and continued humanitarian supplies, Turkey’s continued humanitarian assistance and the readiness of the Turkish armed forces to participate in the multinational mission in Gaza. Also reaffirmed our support for diplomatic efforts aimed at truce and peace, and Turkey’s participation in EU defense initiatives, including the European Security Agenda SAFE,” Guler added.
Guler said that during the meeting he held bilateral talks with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and British Defense Minister John Healey, as well as trilateral talks with the defense ministers of Romania and Bulgaria. In addition, he signed with the allies a “Letter of Intent for the Establishment of a Center of Excellence for Fire Support” and a “Memorandum of Understanding for the High-Performance Distributed Synthetic Learning Project.”