Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin expressed a wish to establish cooperation with Turkish manufacturer of unmanned aerial vehicles Bayraktar, CNN Türk reports.
According to the Turkish president, the UAE also announced the wish to build a factory for the production of Turkish drones on its territory.
Erdogan plans to arrive in Sochi on August 5. He is expected to hold talks with Putin. The leaders of the two countries will discuss the situation in Ukraine and the food deal.
Erdogan and Putin previously met on July 19 in Tehran as part of the Astana format summit. They also met with Iranian Rahbar Ali Khamenei and President Ibrahim Raisi.
Turkey does not fear building close cooperation with Russia, because Turkey is guided by its own benefit and interests, political scientist, director of the International Institute of Recent States Alexei Martynov believes. In his opinion, Ankara does not need to worry about a possibility of being expelled from NATO.
Military and technical cooperation between Russia and Turkey has been on the agenda for quite a long time. The plans for the joint production of Bayraktar drones remain a hot topic of discussion, Kremlin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“The military cooperation between the two countries is constantly on the agenda. The very fact that our interaction is developing in such a sensitive area suggests that, in general, the whole range of our relations remains at a very high level,” Peskov said. Putin and Erdogan will discuss this topic during their meeting in Sochi, Peskov added.
Not that long ago, Erdogan concluded a deal with Putin to purchase S-400 air defence systems from Russia. Washington expressed its concerns about the deal, but the scandal was swept under the carpet. NATO sees Turkey as an important member in the Asian direction. It makes no difference for Turkey who is going is going to be the buyer of Bayraktar drones.
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