Turkish defense chief meets his counterparts at NATO headquarters

By Sarp Ozer

ANKARA (AA) - Türkiye's defense chief on Thursday had talks with his European counterparts at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Participating in the sessions on the alliance’s deterrence and defense, Hulusi Akar later attended a family photo shoot on the second day of the NATO defense ministerial meeting, a precursor to the leaders' summit scheduled for June 29-30 in Madrid.

On the sidelines of the meeting, he had talks with his Lithuanian, Latvian, Albanian, Greek, and French counterparts, separately, discussing regional defense and security issues.

During the meeting with his French counterpart, Akar and Sebastien Lecornu exchanged views on bilateral and regional defense and security issues as well as steps to enhance cooperation in the defense industry.

Meanwhile, the Turkish defense minister and his Greek counterpart Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos stressed the importance of keeping communication channels open for solving current problems and maintaining dialogue to reduce tension between the two countries.

Earlier Thursday, Akar also met with British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace and his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikov on the sidelines of the NATO Defense Ministers Meeting in Brussels to discuss regional defense and security issues, as well as the latest developments in Ukraine, facing war from Russia that started on Feb. 24.

The Turkish defense chief on Wednesday arrived at the NATO headquarters in Brussels to attend the defense ministers’ meeting to be chaired by the secretary-general of the alliance.