NATO Secretary General speech to engineers at ASELSAN Technology Base in Türkiye 🇹🇷 , 22 APR 2026

Video Description

Speech by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to young engineers at ASELSAN Technology Base in Türkiye, 22 April 2026. 🗣 | NATO Secretary General: Well, I must say, I'm extremely impressed by what I've seen this morning. So really, to the company thank you so much. To the Secretary of the Türkiye’s defence industry, again thank you so much for hosting and for being here today, and we see each other tomorrow in Brussels. And again, I'm really deeply impressed. The people, first of all, I mean you, but also when it comes to the technologies you produce, yeah, what we need - and this is why this visit for me is so important - is to accelerate the defence industrial production, but also the defence industrial innovation. And companies like these are combining these two elements, the production and the innovation. It is a top priority for NATO. It will also be one of the key subjects at the NATO summit in Ankara, which will take place in July. Of course, we will celebrate that we are able, collectively, to increase the defence spending. But defence industrial production will be extremely important because we have to do better, we have to do more, and we can learn a lot from what Türkiye is doing here. And this is needed because we live in a more dangerous world. I don't have to tell you this, but maybe through all the journalists here let me also say this to the audiences at home: we live, and of course they also know, in a more dangerous world, and that means we need strong defences to protect our security. We need the best capabilities, we need to incorporate the latest technologies. And we need, therefore, the most creative and the most innovative minds. And therefore I'm so happy that you are here and that you made the choice as young people to work in the defence industry. Everything you do here helps keep Türkiye safe, but it also helps to keep the whole Alliance safe, with Türkiye as a highly valuable Ally. I've said it before: Türkiye has gone through a defence industrial revolution. I could really say it is a revolution in recent years. ASELSAN is at the forefront of this. So please keep it up. Produce and innovate even more and faster. The dangers we are facing are great, from the Arctic to the Mediterranean, from outer-space to the seabed, from missiles and drones to sophisticated cyber-attacks. Russia's war against Ukraine rages on. China's military modernization and nuclear expansion, they continue. And Iran is spreading terror and chaos, and you feel this prominently here in Türkiye. In recent weeks, NATO has successfully intercepted ballistic missiles heading to Türkiye from Iran on four separate occasions. NATO is prepared for such threats, and will always do what is necessary to defend Türkiye and all Allies. But we can't do it alone. Keeping 1 billion people safe across Europe and North America is not a job for NATO and Allied militaries alone. Our industry, and I come back to you, has a responsibility here too. Our political leaders across NATO made a commitment to spend more on defence, and now, indeed, more money is flowing in the defence sector. And that's great. But money alone, as I said, will not keep us safe. The air defence systems, the drones, the ammunition, the radars, the space capabilities and more: that's what will keep us safe. And you develop groundbreaking technologies in this company, but I see it all over Türkiye’s defence industrial base. And you do it for many of these capabilities, and it is what we need. We also need the defence industry across Europe and North America, and this is from, literally, from Alaska to Ankara, to continue to produce together, to innovate together, and to buy from each other. Just recently, as you know, ASELSAN sold advanced electronic warfare systems to Poland. You have started operations in Albania and Romania, and you have equipped a vessel for the Croatian Navy. So I'm glad to address you, the young engineers who make all of this possible. https://www.nato.int/en/news-and-events/events/transcripts/2026/04/22/speech-by-nato-secretary-general-at-aselsan-technology-base ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ SUBSCRIBE to this channel https://bit.ly/NATOsubscribe SUBSCRIBE to NATO News https://bit.ly/NATONewsSubscribe SUBSCRIBE to NATO History https://bit.ly/NATOHistorySubscribe Connect with NATO online: Visit the Official NATO Homepage: https://bit.ly/NATOhomepage Receive NATO updates via email: https://bit.ly/NATOemails Find NATO on FACEBOOK: https://bit.ly/NATOfacebook Follow @NATO on X/TWITTER: https://bit.ly/NATOtwitter Follow NATO on Instagram: https://bit.ly/NATOinstagram Find NATO on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/NATOlinkedin Find NATO on Flickr: https://bit.ly/NATOflickr #NATO #OTAN #Türkiye