Ruşen Kömürcü, Secretary General of the Defence and Aerospace Industry Manufacturers Association (SASAD), made opening remarks of the conference and said, “We organised this event to promote better ASD, of which 20 different countries’ defence associations and direct companies related to the European defence industry are members, and to explain the opportunities there. We see such meetings as very valuable to increase the awareness level of our companies regarding the European defence market and to increase our knowledge level from exports to cooperation.”
Mehmet Akif Nacar, General Manager of HAVELSAN and Deputy Chairman of SASAD, who hosted the event, said, “We are organising one of the meetings here today where what we will do in the new Turkiye century will be determined. I want to express that we are proud to host the event.”
Aerospace, Security and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD) Secretary-General Jan Pie came to Turkiye to attend the SASAD board meeting and gave a conference to SASAD members. Industry representatives participated in the conference hosted by HAVELSAN. ASD Secretary-General Jan Pie emphasised that today’s wars cause European countries to increase their defence budgets. Pie, who took his place on stage as the TurDef Editor-in-Chief Özgür Ekşi’s guest, stated that when ASD is mentioned, the European Union is understood, and Europe should be understood. Pie noted that Europe’s defence and aerospace sector is divided into many sub-branches and is very segregated and pointed out that no significant investments had been made in the field of defence for a long time. He stated that after Russia attacked Ukraine, investments in the area of defence began in Europe, but the processes progressed slowly, and after investing money, no results were received the next day.
Pointing out that the Turkish defence and aerospace sector has come to the fore recently, he said that Turkiye should take advantage of this and promote itself more.
