A new era on French and Turkey Defence Industry

Defence Turkey : First of all could you please inform us about French Defence policy, new procurement programs?

First of all I would like you to thank you for inviting me in order to be able to have a discussion with you. In France defence is a main priority and it has been decades for now more than 50 years in fact since General de Gaulle. That means that in France we want to have an independent and strong defence.  We need very strong and complete defence industry. Now maybe you know that right now  we do have a new White Book in France which has just been developed and it is very important because decision has been made at the highest level  by our President that the effort on defence will be maintain in the future. It was not obvious because you know that France, like other countries in Europe,   has some very important budgetary constraint. In order to be able answer to your question, it is not very easy because in France, we do have major programs in all the possible areas starting with everything connection with nuclear literacy, aircraft carrier, fighter aircraft.  I think that in France we have in all the possible aspect; navy, army, air force, space activities. We have a lot of ongoing programs and future programs.

Defence Turkey: Could you please inform us about your meetings during IDEF?

I have met with  Turkish companies like  Aselsan, MKE, Havelsan, Tubitak, TAI, Roketsan and also SaSAD, the organization responsible for the industry in Turkey. At the same time I took the opportunity to meeting with French industry, because you must know that more than 40 French companies are here in IDEF.  The future cooperation between the French and the Turkish industry is important because our industries are here.

Defence Turkey: It is know that bilateral relationships of Turkish and France industry are quite limited. What is your assessment on activities and plans to strengthened  the defence cooperation?

First of all I am not sure is that limited for the time being, we do have at least two major programs of cooperation on the way between France and Turkey. There is one called ‘Meltem‘  which is about to be an aircraft and there is another one which is ‘ Göktürk-1’, sub observation satellite program which is very ambitious, very important. This satellite will be launch I think at the end of 2014.  So There have been already two important programs of cooperation between our two countries. Now I think this question is very important because we had a visit of my minister at the end of March.  He said that it is  very important to increase  the armament cooperation between our two countries. In order to do that we have first strengthened  some relationship between SSM  and DGA. What we would like to do is strengthen this cooperation by  the partnerships between our industries. Because we do believe this is the idea for the future if  the industry come to know each other better and define new potential areas of cooperation. We have decided between DGA and SSM.  I had meeting with Mr. Murad Bayar that we will create an armament committee between France and Turkey, between SSM and DGA. by the end of this year  We will also organize an industrial armament seminar for our mutual industries in order for them to meet and select potential areas of cooperation in Turkey at December.

Defence Turkey: What sort of business opportunities could be considered for Turkey and France to provide a common interest with each other?

I think There are a lot of potential areas of cooperation. There is a big one is Air Defence, I think the decision will be made in the following month by Turkey for the new air Defence system. So if France is selected, there is a huge opportunity of cooperation between our industry and your industry on air defence because it is a very  important program. But there are several other program which discussed with Murad Bayar during my meeting with your industry. It’s very different in France it can be helicopters, UAV’s, communication satellites, missiles and the propellers for the missiles.  I think there is a huge potential of cooperation for the needs of  Ministry of Defence,  Armed Forces of Turkey and France and also for export.  I think important point is Turkey is an important country for export, we are the same in France. So there might be a lot of things that we can do together through our industries.

Defence Turkey: Would you like to add a message for Defence Turkey readers?

I don’t think it is a message, I think it is a fact. You remember that at the beginning of my interview I said that in France we want a strong Defence industry, it is a priority and we want to be independent for that we do need a very strong Defence industry in France. I think it is exactly the same in Turkey, you want to be independent, you want to have a strong Defence industry. So that is a lot of reason for to travel, to work together.