According to Kordpress, the defense ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member countries met in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, in their last meeting before the NATO summit in Ankara, which is scheduled to be held on July 7 and 8.

At the beginning of the meeting, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced that this meeting is the last important step before the Ankara summit, and its decisions can determine the main framework for the negotiations of the leaders of the member states in the upcoming meeting.

Rote said that one of the main axes of the negotiations is to examine how to increase the responsibility of the European countries that are members of NATO and Canada in the field of conventional defense. According to him, the goal is to ensure the security of the alliance in a more balanced and powerful way, and the members allocate a greater share of their GDP to defense expenses.

Referring to the increase in military budgets among the alliance members, the NATO Secretary General emphasized that in recent years, significant progress has been made in converting these financial resources into ready combat forces and new defense capacities.

Security issues outside of Europe that have a direct impact on NATO security were also discussed in this meeting. Referring to Iran's nuclear case, Rutte said that NATO members have long agreed that Iran should not acquire nuclear weapons. He claimed that following the recent actions of the United States, Iran is further away from achieving such a goal than at any other time in the past years.

The NATO Secretary General also welcomed the recent agreement between the US and Iran and said that the members of the alliance are happy with the increased possibility of achieving peace and reducing tensions following this agreement.

The issue of freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz was also one of the main topics of the talks. Rote announced that the member states have discussed their role and participation in international efforts to ensure the safety of maritime traffic in this strategic waterway.

At the same time as the meeting of NATO defense ministers, a meeting of the "Ukraine Defense Contact Group" was also held, and participating countries discussed the continuation of military support to Kiev and new commitments in this regard.

In this meeting, Türkiye was represented by Yashar Guler, Minister of National Defense. In addition to participating in the main meeting of NATO defense ministers and the commemorative photo ceremony of the alliance's defense leaders, Güler also held bilateral meetings with a number of his counterparts.

On the sidelines of this meeting, Turkish Defense Minister met and talked with Catherine Voutrin, Minister of Defense of France, at the permanent representation of Türkiye in NATO. He also attended the meeting of the Defense Contact Group of Ukraine and discussed bilateral issues and security developments with Dutch Minister of Defense Dylan Yeshilgoes-Zagrios.

The NATO summit is scheduled to be held in Ankara in early July; The meeting is of special importance in the shadow of the war in Ukraine, the developments in the Middle East and the discussion of increasing the defense costs of the coalition members.