Drones and helicopters from Turkey will soon arrive in Nigeria, according to Hidayet Bayraktar, Turkish ambassador to Nigeria, as part of efforts to strengthen the country’s security architecture.
On Saturday, Bayraktar spoke at an event in Abuja commemorating the Republic of Turkey’s 99th national day.
In August 2021, Bayraktar stated that Nigeria and Turkey would collaborate in various sectors, including security.
The ambassador described Turkey’s security assistance to Nigeria as a result of the two countries’ defense cooperation contract, which was signed in 2021.
He stated that Turkey intends to help Nigeria combat security threats by sharing experience, technical expertise, and technology.
“The defence contracts signed between our countries last year, marked a historical record,” he said.
“Taking this opportunity, I am proud to announce that two of our flagship defence industry platforms, Bayraktar (TB-2) drones and (T-149) ATAK helicopters, are set to arrive Nigeria.
“We are confident that new Turkish defence products will support the efforts of the Nigerian government and contribute immensely to the peace, prosperity, and security of fellow Nigerians.
“Remaining as the sole obstacle hindering our bilateral relations to develop further, we call Nigeria not to let terror groups undermine our excellent ties, by allowing this terrorist group to fund their illegal aims and activities, by generation of revenues in this country.”
Regarding bilateral relations between the two countries, Bayraktar expressed his pride in the achievements made in bilateral relations between Turkey and Nigeria.
He also emphasized President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Nigeria and President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to Turkey.
“These mutual high-level visits have provided the opportunity to underline our shared goal of strengthening our bilateral ties in every field, especially in terms of commerce, defence industry, energy, construction, manufacturing, healthcare, education, tourism, and culture,” he said.
“With its steady growth over the last decade and by emerging as an economic powerhouse in its region, Türkiye expressed its readiness to share its development experience with African states, to broaden and strengthen its cooperation in different areas.
“Today, Turkish business people, some of whom are present here tonight, are investing in numerous sectors, from fast-moving-consumer-goods to construction, from healthcare to transportation, from energy to agriculture.
“With the current pace of increasing commercial relations, I am confident that we will soon achieve our target of $5 billion of bilateral trading volume with Nigeria, which remains as one of our top trading partners in sub-Saharan Africa.”
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