The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said on Friday that Turkey and Serbia have decided to work together to develop their defense industries.
During his visit to Belgrade, the Turkish leader also announced that part of their cooperation will be the Turkish drones that will be donated to Serbia, writes REL.
“Turkey and Serbia must take steps together, but these steps are the joint formation of a defense industry, to guarantee peace”, said Erdogan in a joint conference with the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, in Belgrade.
International demands for Turkish drones, mainly TB2 Bayraktar drones, have greatly increased following their impact on conflicts in Syria, Libya, Azerbaijan and Ukraine. The Turkish company Baykar has signed export agreements with 30 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Kosovo and Poland.
Erdogan said that Ankara and Belgrade will use their resources “as two friendly countries” to increase cooperation, warning that neither country should try to interfere, even if they don’t like it.
Erdogan promised an unspecified number of drones to Albania as well, during his visit to Tirana the day before.
Earlier, Erdogan said that relations between Turkey and Serbia are in “golden times”.
Vučić said that the two leaders discussed important geopolitical topics, as well as the problems faced by the two countries.
“Turkey and Serbia have good economic relations. We have tripled the commercial exchange, compared to a few years ago”, said Vučić.
The Serbian President has said that an agreement has been reached to improve relations and cooperation in the defense and military industry.
Erdogan met with Vučić in Belgrade, as part of his two-day visit to Serbia.
On the day of the Turkish president’s arrival in Serbia, on October 10, the Government of Serbia approved several memorandums of understanding between Serbia and Turkey, in areas such as employment, social security, economy, industry and technology, media and information, youth and sport, and emergency management.
This is the fourth visit of the Turkish president to Serbia, since 2017.
