By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Turkey and Pakistan have agreed to advance cooperation in the defense industry.

The remark was made by president Erdogan at a ship launching ceremony in Istanbul joined by his Pakistani counterpart, Turkish media reported on August 16.

Stressing the historical roots of the Turkish-Pakistani relations, Erdogan said that the countries continue to work uninterruptedly to advance their relations in every field.

“In the field of defense industry, there are very successful joint cooperation projects such as ATAK helicopters and training planes in addition to the MILGEM corvettes, the first ship of which we are inaugurating today”, he said.

Reminding the roadmap signed between Turkey and Pakistan in Islamabad in February 2020, Erdogan said that thanks to this project, the two countries did not experience a decrease in the bilateral trade volume last year despite the pandemic.

Erdogan noted that Turkey will build four MILGEM class corvettes for the Pakistan Navy within the scope of the MILGEM Project by 2025.

“Pakistan has a special place among the nearly 80 countries with which our Ministry of National Defense cooperates in the field of defense industry”, he stressed.

Referring to the arms embargo imposed on Ankara by some Western countries, he stressed that these restrictions urged Turkey to develop its defense industry and in upcoming four to five years, Turkey will be one of the top league countries in this field.

“We believe that this is the greatest gift we will give to our nation in 2023, the 100th anniversary of the founding of our Republic", Erdogan said.

Commenting on the developments in Afghanistan, he said that Turkey will continue its efforts to stabilize the situation in the region and Pakistan also has a great responsibility in this regard.

He reminded that Turkey is facing a wave of Afghan immigrants through Iran, however the walls that have been built on the borders will completely block the entrances and exits of the immigrant flows.