The US ambassador to NATO said on Wednesday that Türkiye's defense industrial capacity should serve as a model for other allies, ahead of next week's NATO summit in Ankara.
"We need all of our allies to be more like Türkiye, to have an industrial base that can manufacture, for example, 50 ships at a time is what Türkiye is building right now in their shipyards," Matthew Whitaker said in an interview with Fox News.
Noting his visit to Türkiye last month, visiting İzmir, İstanbul, and the base at İncirlik base near Adana in the country's south, he described Türkiye as "an incredibly capable ally."
"They are seriously committed to the NATO alliance and also the security of themselves and their allies," he said. "And so we need to continue to strengthen that relationship."
His remarks came ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara on July 7–8. President Donald Trump said he will attend the summit "out of respect" for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Trump said he is likely to take a step that would make Türkiye "very happy" when asked about Ankara's request for F-35 fighter jets and jet engines.
Speaking separately at a briefing with reporters, Whitaker said the Ankara summit would serve as a checkpoint for allies' commitments made at the June 2025 Hague summit, where all allies committed to spending 5% of GDP by 2035.
"All of our allies committed to spend 5% of their GDP on defense, and obviously that's all because of President Trump's leadership," he said. "Ankara really is going to be a measurement of the progress against the Hague defense commitment."
He said Trump "fully expects that all allies will step up immediately and get on the path to 5% and do it with urgency."
Whitaker also criticized European defense efforts that could exclude non-EU allies, saying the US opposes "protectionist language" that would cut out partners "including Türkiye and others."
"The United States obviously is welcoming European efforts to increase defense production and reduce regulations, but we certainly do not support the protectionist language that oftentimes many of the European defense initiatives have included that would cut out allies, not just the United States, but all non-EU allies, including Türkiye and others," he said, adding the issue "may come up during the summit."
On Ukraine, Whitaker said the US would continue supplying weapons through allied purchases.
"Obviously the Ukrainians continue to do a great job on the battlefield," he said. "Our allies buy American weapons and provide them to Ukraine, and they're the best weapons available, and we've done over $6 billion in that program, and we continue to do it."
"You should expect long-term sustained commitments to the support of Ukraine that will help them continue to stay in the fight," he said.
