The Netherlands Announces New Defence Investments at the NATO Summit
With the US pressing Europe to shoulder more of its own defence, the deals are meant to show that allies are converting bigger budgets into actual military capability.
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The Netherlands has announced a package of new defence investments together with NATO allies at the alliance’s summit in Ankara, worth more than 3 billion euros in total. The plans, unveiled on the opening day of the two-day meeting in the Turkish capital, cover new warships, replacement radar aircraft and the production and maintenance of missiles in Europe.
Ships, radar planes and missiles
The largest item is a joint purchase of new amphibious transport ships with the United Kingdom, for which the Netherlands has set aside between 1 and 2.5 billion euros, according to the Dutch Ministry of Defence. The vessels are designed to support troops and equipment during operations at sea and on land. British and Dutch marines have worked together for decades, and the plan brings the two countries’ shipbuilding programmes closer together.
The Netherlands is also part of a group of NATO countries replacing the alliance’s ageing AWACS radar planes, which are used for early warning and air surveillance and are around 50 years old. NATO confirmed at the summit that it will buy up to ten GlobalEye aircraft, built by the Swedish company Saab, in a project involving eleven member states.
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Producing more weapons in Europe
A large part of the Dutch announcement is about making weapons in Europe rather than only buying them from the United States. Together with Germany, the Netherlands will produce Stinger missiles, portable anti-aircraft weapons that a soldier fires and which then track a target such as an aircraft by themselves. Stingers have regularly been part of Western support packages to Ukraine and still play an important role in the war against Russia.
The Netherlands will also look into co-producing AMRAAM missiles, which are used by F-35 fighter jets, with allies. And together with Germany, Poland and Sweden, it will take the lead in setting up a European maintenance facility for PAC-3 missiles, the interceptors used by the Patriot air defence system.
Defence Minister Dilan Yesilgöz said the point of the cooperation was to work “smarter.” “By joining forces we prevent fragmentation, we increase our production capacity with allies, and we make sure our companies can scale up faster,” she said.
A signal to Washington
The agreements were signed at a summit that is being closely watched in Washington. NATO countries are trying to show that the sharply higher defence spending they have promised is actually being turned into weapons, equipment and production capacity. That message is aimed in part at US President Donald Trump, who has long pressed European allies to spend more on their own defence.
Trump has been sharply critical of the alliance, describing it as a “paper tiger” and suggesting the United States could step back from it, as Washington shifts more of its attention towards Asia. Last year, NATO members agreed to work towards spending 5 percent of their economic output on defence and related infrastructure. According to figures cited by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, the former Dutch prime minister, European members and Canada spent around 90 billion dollars more on defence in 2025 than the year before.
Wider NATO plans
The Dutch announcement was one of many at the summit. Rutte said allies would invest 35 billion euros over the next five years in defences against drones, pointing to the war in Ukraine, where drones have come to play a decisive role on the battlefield. NATO also presented projects for new tanker and transport aircraft and for surveillance drones. “It is money well spent,” Rutte said.
The summit, held at the palace of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and guarded by a large police operation, brings together the alliance’s 32 member states and runs until Wednesday. On the sidelines, Trump is due to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.