By Melike Pala
THE HAGUE (AA) - NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Tuesday praised Türkiye's defense industrial base and said the country's defense industry should be more closely connected with the UK, Norway, and the European Union.
"Türkiye has a very big defense industrial base. Sometimes (we) forget what they have. I visited some of their companies, it's really impressive," Rutte told the NATO Public Forum in The Hague.
"We have to make sure that the Turkish defense industrial base is as closely connected as possible to the UK, Norway and the European Union," he added.
Rutte warned against creating internal divisions within the alliance based on defense cooperation frameworks, saying: "Let’s not have these fences drawn up within NATO. It won't help."
Leaders of NATO's 32 member states are gathering in The Hague on June 24-25 for a critical summit dominated by debates over increased defense spending and Ukraine's membership bid.