Baykar inks Türkiye’s largest-ever defense deal with Saudi Arabia

Turkish company Baykar has signed an agreement to provide its Bayraktar AKINCI unmanned combat aerial vehicles to Saudi Arabia, which Baykar CEO Haluk Bayraktar has called "the biggest defense and aviation export contract in the history of the Turkish Republic."

The agreement was inked during President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's visit to Saudi Arabia.

"We signed an export and cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia's Defense Ministry," Bayraktar wrote on Twitter.

Baykar has been holding talks with the Saudi Defense Ministry for over a year regarding the Bayraktar AKINCI drone project, said Bayraktar without providing financial details of the agreement.

He noted that before Saudi Arabia, Baykar had signed export agreements for AKINCI with six countries.

As part of the deal with Saudi Arabia, Baykar will also provide training, technical support and logistics services.

Meanwhile, expectations are running high among Turkish companies that Erdogan's three-state Gulf tour may create new investment and cooperation opportunities for them.

Particularly, Turkish construction companies are closely watching the large-scale projects which those countries plan to carry out, hoping that they could win contracts in those projects, while investors from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar are interested in Türkiye's logistics, finance, energy and petrochemicals industries.

Officials from the Turkish Trade Ministry noted that exports to the Gulf countries reached $21 billion and that there is huge potential to boost trade, adding that Türkiye and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar could further bolster cooperation in a number of fields.

Saudi Arabia is one of the largest markets for Turkish...