Türkiye eyes defense co-op with Germany: Erdoğan

Türkiye wants to strengthen cooperation with Germany on the procurement of defense industry products, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Oct. 19.

"We wish to improve our cooperation by leaving behind some of the problems previously experienced in the context of the supply of defense industry products," Erdoğan said in a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Istanbul.

Ankara and Berlin are also committed to combating terrorist groups, particularly PKK and FETÖ, he added.

"We have intensive relations with our NATO ally Germany in every field possible between two great states. The recent high-level visits between our countries are a clear manifestation of this situation," Erdoğan said, pointing out a previous visit in April by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

"The locomotive of these relations is our human ties and common interests."

Noting that more than 3.5 million Turkish people live in Germany and more than 6 million German tourists visit Türkiye every year, the president expressed hope for the further improvement of these figures.

"We built our talks today on this rich agenda. We discussed relations between our countries comprehensively in all dimensions. Our bilateral trade has reached $50 billion. Our goal is to reach $60 billion. We have increased our efforts to realize this goal," he added.

Since last year, Ankara has been seeking to purchase at least 40 Eurofighter jets, with the total package estimated at $5.6 billion.

The jets are produced by a consortium of countries consisting of Germany, Spain, Italy and the U.K. All support the sale except Germany, according to media reports.

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