Saudi Arabia buys Turkish drones during Erdogan’s visit  July 18, RIYADH – President Tayyip Erdogan reaped the rewards of his diplomatic campaign to mend relations with Gulf nations and support Ankara’s faltering economy on Tuesday when Saudi Arabia agreed to purchase Turkish drones in the largest defense contract in Turkey’s history. Erdogan and Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, were present at the signing ceremony between Turkish defense company Baykar and the Saudi Defense Ministry, according to Saudi state news agency SPA. Erdogan began his Gulf tour on Monday with a stop in the Saudi city of Jeddah on the Red Sea. According to a tweet from Saudi Arabia’s defense minister, Prince Khalid bin Salman, the country would buy the drones “in order to improve the readiness of the kingdom’s armed forces and bolster its defense and manufacturing capabilities.” The deal’s value was not disclosed by SPA, but Baykar CEO Haluk Bayraktar stated it was the largest defense and aviation export contract ever signed by Turkey.
He announced it on Twitter, saying, “We signed a contract with the Saudi Arabian Defense Ministry for the Bayraktar Akinci (unmanned combat aerial vehicle) export and cooperation.” Since 2021, when Ankara began a diplomatic campaign to mend relations with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, investments and finance from the Gulf have helped relieve strain on Turkey’s economy and its currency reserves. Due to Ankara’s support of pro-democracy movements in the Middle East and North Africa and the murder of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, Turkey and the two Gulf governments had been at odds for years.
In “JOINT PRODUCTION”
Tuesday will see Erdogan depart for Qatar, the next leg on his first Gulf visit following his May reelection. He is expected in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday.
According to SPA, Erdogan and Prince Mohammed were present when Prince Khalid and Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler signed a plan for defense cooperation.
Creating a homegrown defense industry is a component of Prince Mohammed’s ambitious ambition to transition the kingdom’s economy away from oil.
The agreement with Riyadh calls for collaboration on knowledge transfer and collaborative production, according to Baykar in a separate statement, “in order to advance the high technology development capability of the two countries.”
According to SPA, the two nations also signed a number of memorandums of agreement in industries like energy, real estate, and direct investments. In order to examine “economic cooperation opportunities” with partners, Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz and Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek traveled to the United Arab Emirates last month, according to Ankara. While there, they visited President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan. According to data released on Monday, the budget deficit in Turkey increased to seven times what it was in June of last year, and last month’s annual inflation rate was close to 40% despite the lira being about 29% weaker this year. Additional reporting was done in Cairo by Enas Alashray and Yomna Ehab, and in Istanbul by Daren Butler and Can Sezer. Jamie Freed, Lincoln Feast, Tomasz Janowski, and Bernadette Baum edited the piece.
About Drones :
Through a significant drone contract secured with Turkish business Baykar, which the company’s CEO is calling the greatest transaction between the two countries in Turkish defense history, Saudi Arabia is expected to help Turkey’s struggling economy. Last week, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan traveled to the Gulf. Turkey is currently experiencing a severe financial crisis, with inflation soaring and the value of its currency plummeting.
