Tunisian Minister of National Defense Brahim Bartagi praised the level of cooperation between his country and Turkey in the military field.
The news on the said issue came in a statement issued on Friday by the Ministry of National Defense, following a meeting between Minister Bartagi and the Turkish Ambassador to Tunisia, Çağlar Fahri Çakıralp, at the ministry’s headquarters in the capital, Tunis.
Bartagi expressed his hope for more cooperation with Turkey in the fields of training, military industries, technology transfer, and military health, “and to explore new avenues for this cooperation that respond to the needs of the Tunisian and Turkish military institutions.”
For his part, the Turkish ambassador stressed the “strength and ancientness of Tunisian-Turkish relations,” according to the statement.
He expressed his country’s readiness to further develop the existing cooperation between the two countries in a way that supports the operational capabilities of the Tunisian military institution and responds to its needs within the framework of mutual trust.
On Tuesday, Tunisian President Kais Saied received the credentials of Turkish Ambassador Çağlar Fahri Çakıralp, as the new Turkish Ambassador to Tunisia.
İsmail Demir, the Head of Defense Industry of the Turkish Presidency, had announced that five Turkish companies exported 150 million dollars to Tunisia in December 2020. “Under the coordination of our Presidency, five of our companies have exported a total of 150 million dollars. TAI’s ANKA-S UAVs, BMC’s Kirpi and Nurol Makina’s Ejder Yalçın armored vehicles, Katmerciler’s various vehicles such as tankers and tanks, ASELSAN’s electro-optical systems will be at the service of Tunisian security forces,” he stated.
In early 2019, the Tunisian parliament, by a majority, approved a loan agreement with the Turkish Eximbank, Export Credit Bank of Turkey worth $200 million aimed at contributing to the provision of equipment of Turkish origin for the benefit of the security and military institutions in Tunisia.
