Turkish MoD and senior U.K. officials held a meeting to discuss possible areas of cooperation regarding defence and regional security in the MENA region.
The strategic meeting saw the participation of senior U.K. officials, including: Air Vice Marshal Mark Ridgway, Director of Defence Futures, Integration Design Authority, U.K. Ministry of Defence, Nick Catsaras, Director for International Security at the Ministry of Defence, Paul Wyatt, Director General Defence Policy at the Ministry of Defence Dr Christian Turner, Political Director at the FCDO, Andy Start, Chief Executive Officer of Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), and Air Marshal Harvey Smyth, Deputy Commander Operations of the Royal Air Force (RAF).
The meeting covered various security subjects, such as supporting the security in Syria with the new regime, ensuring political stability in Libya, and deepening existing cooperation through projects and institutional mechanisms.
A meeting of this scale shows that the U.K. and Turkiye are keen on taking solid steps to form deeper cooperation in the light of a world becoming more volatile. However, the same can not be said for some of the EU members, who, despite being a neighbour to an ongoing war, are still in the process of figuring out a cooperative structure within the scope of the SAFE initiative. Furthermore, members like France and Greece limiting or rejecting contributions from non-EU allies do not draw a reliable picture. For example, France remains adamant about using EU-only equipment in general, while Greece is specifically targeting Turkiye as one could expect.
Turkiye and the UK signed only last month the Defence Industry Cooperation Council Charter in London to start a new phase in the two nations' strategic defence cooperation.
The Charter of the Turkiye–United Kingdom defence Industry Cooperation Council (TUDIC) has been officially signed by both parties, hence institutionalising the relationship between the two countries in the area of defence industry.
Author: Kaan Azman
Editor: Özgür Ekşi
