Bangladesh and Turkey are strengthening defence ties by joint industrial tasks, know-how switch, and army offers.
Turkey’s arms partnership with Bangladesh deepens, strategic shift alarms India
Bangladesh and Turkey are rising their army cooperation, and this rising friendship is now increasing into defence trade improvement. Underneath the management of Mohammed Yunus, Bangladesh is now in talks with Turkey to construct defence industrial complexes within the cities of Chattogram and Narayanganj. These discussions happened throughout a five-day official go to to Turkey by the Govt Chairman of Bangladesh’s Funding Improvement Authority (BIDA), Chowdhury Ashiq Mahmood bin Harun.
Give attention to Know-how Switch and Joint Manufacturing
The primary goal of Harun’s go to was to construct deeper strategic defence ties with Turkey. This contains co-production of army gear, know-how switch, and capability constructing for Bangladesh. Based on a report by North East Information, Harun and his staff visited the services of Turkey’s state-owned defence firm MKE (Makina ve Kimya Endüstrisi) situated within the Kirikkale area of central Anatolia.
Through the go to, the Bangladeshi staff acquired categorised briefings on MKE’s artillery programs, power weapons, and small arms. In addition they toured MKE’s manufacturing strains and testing websites to discover alternatives for future partnerships.
Not the First Time
This isn’t the primary time Bangladesh and MKE have labored collectively. Final yr, Bangladesh bought 18 models of MKE Boran 105mm howitzers. There are actually plans to extend this quantity to 200 models sooner or later. As well as, Bangladesh is reportedly contemplating the acquisition of Otokar Tulpar mild tanks, additionally made in Turkey.
Defence cooperation between Bangladesh and Turkey has been rising since 2018 when Dhaka purchased 15 various kinds of army {hardware} from Turkish producers, together with the well-known Bayraktar TB2 drones. The most recent talks with MKE are anticipated to strengthen industrial cooperation and defence integration between the 2 nations.
Experiences counsel that each nations are getting ready to enter formal talks to arrange a joint Defence Industrial Working Group and signal a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to make the collaboration official.
This nearer relationship between Bangladesh and Turkey comes at a time when tensions between India and Pakistan are excessive. Since Turkey has brazenly supported Pakistan throughout latest army standoffs with India, Turkey’s rising presence in India’s jap neighbour might increase issues in New Delhi.
