NATO's Ankara summit begins today. The summit is seen as being at a critical juncture for NATO's future, and decisions expected to be taken there are anticipated to have a vital impact on the alliance's future.

On NATO's official agenda, the first item will be addressing how much of the burden-sharing commitments decided at previous summits have actually materialized, along with the shortfalls experienced in implementation. Under this heading, it will be decided that increasing defense spending alone is not sufficient, and that burden-sharing must therefore be made strategic through joint procurement and defense-industry integration. The aim will be to fix bottlenecks in procurement, air defense and personnel capacity that would raise deterrence.

Second, the framework for a new positioning that would narrow the Europe-U.S. divide and "keep the U.S. engaged" will be on the table. In this context, discussions will cover the Europeanization of NATO through the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) program and the problems that would arise if European security were left solely to EU member states, such as how the non-member countries like the United Kingdom, Türkiye and Norway would be treated under a different status.

The third topic will be Ukraine. Here, through "NATO 3.0" discussions, NATO's core mission, the reaffirmation of deterrence against Russia, and the buildup of capacity along with new mechanisms to strengthen NATO's eastern border will again form the summit's main themes.

Under a fourth heading, NATO's southern flank; under a fifth heading, the U.S.-Iran war and the impact of Middle Eastern insecurity on NATO's agenda, and under a sixth heading, intra-NATO political solidarity and reducing the factors generating distrust among allies will also be addressed.

Naturally, as the host country, Türkiye's role, its contribution to the alliance, and its expectations and demands from the alliance will be a prominent topic on the summit agenda.

Türkiye's demands should be heard

Türkiye today is not, as it was during the Cold War, merely a "flank country" on NATO's southern flank valued for its large army and strategic geographic position. Türkiye now sits at the table as the most important "central actor" in the security of the alliance's southern flank. It is a leading defense-industry producer and technology developer with advanced state capacity, capable of generating results and influence in crisis zones through its diplomatic power. It is making a concrete contribution to NATO not as a consumer of security but as a producer of security through its own capacity and power, and is setting out a vision for the future.

In this context, Türkiye's most concrete demand will be the lifting of restrictions on its defense industry, greater inclusion in European security initiatives, and integration of the defense industry. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, and Defense Minister Yaşar Güler have stated at every opportunity in their recent remarks that restrictions on defense trade are damaging alliance solidarity.

These demands are not limited only to the F-35 file or F-16 modernization. They also cover a range of other headings, such as air and missile defense systems, engine technologies, export licenses, joint production models and participation in financing funds.

Related to this first point, Türkiye's second most important strategic file is that it must not be left out of the European defense architecture. The exclusion of Türkiye, a non-EU member, from European defense financing and joint procurement mechanisms such as SAFE will be a problem on the table. Debate continues over whether Türkiye will be included in the defense procurement system currently set at 150 billion euros.

Another agenda item Türkiye will bring to the table is the need for NATO's "360-degree security concept" to be fully operationalized. Ankara does not reject the priority given to the Russia-Ukraine war on NATO's agenda. It has demonstrated this through its concrete policies. However, it objects to NATO's security horizon being reduced solely to the eastern flank.

It argues that threats emerging from NATO's southern flank cannot be seen as secondary either. In this context, it is demanding that high-level measures against the energy and supply security risks, mass migration and terrorist threats stemming from instability centered in the Middle East, the Mediterranean and Africa be prioritized in NATO's southern strategy.

In conclusion, Türkiye's presence at the table is multilayered. It is NATO's second-largest military force. It leads Europe in the defense industry. Its geopolitical position, diplomatic weight, counterterrorism capacity, its role in the Black Sea balance, and its importance on the southern flank cannot be overlooked. Accordingly, it expects reciprocity from its allies commensurate with this weight.