President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan welcomed on Wednesday recent progress on a top issue with the United States – the delivery of F-35 fighter jets to Türkiye.
“We discussed the F-35 (fighter jet) issue. We made payments of $1.3 billion to 1.4 billion for F-35s, and we saw that Mr. Trump was well-intentioned about delivering them,” Erdoğan told a news conference in The Hague after a NATO summit, referring to his meeting with his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, late Tuesday.
Erdoğan said the outcome of the summit was to increase the spending on defense for the allied countries.
Noting that Türkiye is the most affected allied country by both terrorism and regional crises, he said authorities have been making efforts to keep the country away from conflicts and tensions.
Stressing Türkiye’s attempts to increase its deterrence and strengthening defense capabilities, Erdoğan said the country has made a “great breakthrough” in its defense industry in recent years.
“I think it is right that many allies are aligning themselves with us in taking on more responsibility in the face of threats and challenges.
“Of course, it is not possible to improve the effectiveness of the alliance by simply increasing defense spending. Mutual understanding and cooperation among allies must also be sincerely established,” he said.
On NATO’s collective posture, Erdogan said Türkiye led efforts to ensure that “NATO documents call for lifting all barriers to defense trade among allies, without exception.”
On European defense industry integration, the Turkish president said he stressed that the participation of non-EU NATO partners would “serve the interests of all Europe.”
Ankara is also holding talks with London and Berlin on the Eurofighter jet program, he said, noting “positive developments.”
“We also made sure the declaration reflected our view that counterterrorism can only succeed through genuine solidarity among allies,” he said.
The president also reaffirmed Türkiye’s continued diplomatic push for a just and sustainable peace in the Russian-Ukrainian war, saying: “I believe a window of opportunity has opened for a cease-fire and lasting peace.”
“This should not be wasted. Our goal is to pave the way for a process leading to lasting peace by supporting additional concrete steps between the parties.
“I maintain my hope that the war will be concluded as soon as possible with the support of our allies. As I have always said, a just peace has no losers,” he added.
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