The world is steadily beginning to arm itself once again, with defence spending on the rise, somewhat attributed to aggressive moves and calls being issued by many of the largest and most powerful countries in the world, including the United States of America.
As of recent, US President Donald Trump has been pushing Europe and the NATO nations to spend more on defence and improve their investment in arms and modern technologies, something that is now being heeded by the various NATO leaders.
Today, July 7, many of the NATO leaders are present in Ankara, Turkey for a forum revolving around spending on defence, with deals worth tens of billions of dollars expected to be announced.
While many of the deals will be unveiled in the hours to come, as per Reuters, NATO is expected to announce plans to replace its ageing fleet of US-constructed AWACS surveillance aircraft with a Swedish alternative from Saab known as the GlobalEye. Likewise, the Netherlands will supposedly be revealing a deal worth €3 billion that includes a partnership with Belgium on air defence and similar with Britain for naval ships.
This all comes following the UK recently announcing a big £15 billion investment in defence spending. The NATO forum will also see Trump appearing as part of a summit, where there is no expectation of a confrontation between the US and Spain following the latter regarding defence spending as no longer a priority.