Turkey pushes NATO UAV collaboration and equal partnership at summit

At the 36th NATO Heads of State summit in Ankara, Baykar CEO Haluk Bayraktar urged NATO members to accelerate unmanned‑air‑system development through joint projects rather than reinventing technology. He highlighted Baykar’s work with 40 countries, its capacity to produce large‑scale UAVs, and the benefits of sharing existing expertise and patents in partnership models.

In the same forum, MIT chief İbrahim Kalın stressed that a strong, equal partnership is essential for NATO’s future. He warned that security threats are increasingly hybrid and that alliance members must share capabilities and invest in collective strategic resilience. Kalın pointed to Turkey’s sizable defence industry and its role in enhancing NATO’s deterrence, calling for complementary capacity‑sharing and a commitment to collective security.

Both speakers framed their remarks as calls for deeper cooperation, capacity sharing, and equitable treatment of all alliance members, positioning Turkey as a key defence‑technology partner within NATO.