Türkiye-Saudi Arabia defense industry days were held in Vadi Istanbul on 11-12 November. 69 Turkish and 30 Saudi companies came together at the event and held 601 business meetings over two days. The real emphasis was on joint production and technology transfer rather than sales.
Türkiye-Saudi Arabia defense industry program
Bender al-Khorayef, Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia and Chairman of the General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI), met with the general managers of Otokar, ROKETSAN, STM and HAVELSAN on the first day. On the second day, he met with TUSAŞ, MKE and SAHA Istanbul executives.
The protocol day started with the opening program. Then, President of Defense Industries Prof. Dr. Haluk Görgün and Minister el-Khorayef had a bilateral meeting. During the meeting, the development of defense industry cooperation was discussed.
Görgün: We held 75 meetings
Görgün said that they have adopted the vision of developing the defense industry together with sister countries such as Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the number of Türkiye-Saudi Arabia meetings he has attended in the last 3.5 years has reached 75. For this reason, it seems that contacts between the two countries are on a continuous schedule.
Görgün said: "I would like to express once again that we are ready to take steps that we can develop and move forward together in each project, with our nearly 4,500 SMEs operating in the defense industry, our more than 1,400 projects and our project portfolio of approximately 120 billion dollars."
Mecca Agreement and 2030 Vision
ROKETSAN General Manager Murat İkin stated that the cooperation between the two countries will contribute to the goals of industrialization and technological deepening. He said that the Mecca Agreement paved the way in many areas, from joint production to technology transfer, from improving industrial capacity to new investments. According to İkik, the two countries should turn political support into concrete projects.
Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) Chief Executive Thamer AlMuhid said that they want the work to be shaped in line with Saudi Arabia's 2030 Vision. Their goal is to strengthen Türkiye-Saudi Arabia defense industry cooperation with state support.
AlMuhid added that in addition to the defense industry, joint work can be carried out in civil defense and other sectors. The next step for concrete projects will depend on the results of the 601 meetings that lasted two days. Because the joint production topics that the companies talk about at the table will become clear in these meetings.
