A Message from the British Ambassador to Turkey – Sir Dominick CHILCOTT
The United Kingdom’s Minister for Exports, Mr. Graham STUART MP, will lead the UK’s delegation to this year’s IDEF. Mark GOLDSACK, the Director of the Department for International Trade Defense and Security Organization (DIT DSO), will accompany him. There will be a UK pavilion at the exhibition.
While he is in Turkey, the Minister for Exports will also visit businesses in Istanbul and Kocaeli, as well as Istanbul Teknopark, to promote UK-Turkey trade and investment. We believe that these visits will pave the way for deeper discussions about industrial cooperation.
The successful conclusion, last December, of the new United Kingdom-Turkey Free Trade Agreement (FTA) provides an excellent foundation for further collaboration. Now that both sides have ratified it, it is playing a crucial role in providing certainty for our respective businesses. Both Turkey and the UK have committed themselves to starting, before the end of 2022, a review on ways in which the agreement could be enhanced and modernized. In due course, those enhancements – what we might call a bilateral FTA2.0 - should create new opportunities for businesses in both our countries to deepen our bilateral trade and investment relationship.
In the defense sector, we have seen great advances in recent years. British companies are increasingly working in partnership with Turkish companies. We are seeing the transfer of technology and know-how to Turkey. Perhaps the most striking example of this is BAE Systems’ support for the TF-X 5th Generation fighter aircraft program. We are hoping to increase the contribution of UK Industry to this program and expand our collaboration to help Turkey build this strategically important capability.
The maritime sector is another area where we believe there is great potential for our countries and industries to cooperate. Both countries have ambitious targets in this sector and different strengths and competitive advantages that can be complementary.
In June, the Royal Navy ship, HMS Defender, visited Istanbul and provided the platform for several networking events attended by distinguished guests from the Turkish defense, aviation and space sectors. A Defense Support for Industry Day (DSID) event attracted over 90 high level representatives, including from Airbus, Rolls Royce, FNSS, Shell, Vodafone, Caterpillar, Inmarsat, Leonardo, Thales and BAE Systems, as well as guests from the Turkish Defense Industry, Presidency for Defense Industries (SSB), Turkish Navy, TURKSAT, Turkish Space Agency and major shipyards.
The events on board HMS Defender were very well received. In particular, people told us that they were the first occasions since the beginning of Covid-related restrictions that people from industry and government had been able to gather. Everyone seemed really to enjoy the opportunity to discuss topics of mutual interest in person, face to face.
In a similar vein, it is pleasing that IDEF will be taking place as a live event, providing another good occasion for us to come together again and have useful interactions, including at a government-to-government level.
Following soon after IDEF, the UK will be hosting our own defense and security exhibition, DSEI, in London, from 14-17 September. We very much look forward to continuing our engagement with our Turkish partners and other industry representatives there
