UKTI: Turkey Represents a Great Partnership Opportunity for the UK

Defence Turkey: First of all thank you very much for the interview. Could you please inform us UKTI structure, mission and activities in defence and security?

UKTI Defence and security organization exists to support UK Defence and security industry exports. But it does more than acts as a sales front for the industry. It creates relationships between UK government and international governments who are the customers for the UK industry and it provides professional support.  We have 50 officials and other ranks from the army, the air force and the navy. We have all experts in a particular field. These people help customers understand the value and the capabilities of UK equipment.

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

First of all I must tell you that this year, IDEF has been magnificent.  I mentioned this yesterday to the Undersecretary. He should be very pleased with the way this exhibition has turned out. We have had conversations obviously with SSM in the form of Murad Bayar himself. We have known each other for quite a long time and we have been very helpful to each other over those years. We understand much better the needs Turkish industry and where the UK industry can help. But of course everybody comes to IDEF, so it is not just the Turkish delegations we have been speaking to. The international delegations  from the Middle East,  United States, far East and  South America are very important part of IDEF’s success. 

Defence Turkey: What are the British participant company’s products or capabilities displayed during IDEF?

If you look at the companies in IDEF, they represent the entire range of the UK’s Defence and security capabilities. We have brought a large delegation more than 25 companies and these include very large companies which are internationally well known like BAE Systems,  Rolls Royce or Thales UK and also much smaller companies that  you may not necessarily heard of before but which produce excellent equipments. The Turkish Defence industry has developed. It’s no longer a case of selling a finished product to Turkey. Turkey has ambition, it has capability and it has achieved a lot. So if you want to succeed in Turkey, you have to be a partner of the Turkish industry. That way, Turkey will accelerate the development of an international industry .That’s what we are doing. All the British companies in IDEF whether they are the big names, the high mentioned, whether they are intermediate size companies or smaller companies like AmSafe  are partnering with Turkish interests and as a consequence, they are doing great things for Turkey as well as the UK. Not only for Turkey’s all needs but helping Turkey to export to international markets. So actually we feel very confident about our future association with Turkey and the success of Turkish industry.

Defence Turkey: It’s well known that British and Turkish Defence industry cooperation has  strengthened  in recent years. So how do you asses the activities and achievements taken and performed over the years?

 I think 5 years ago Turkey was still a closed market for the UK. Of course we had some successes, but Turkey was setting out on a new road which we are very familiar with.  Turkish ambition was to create a defence industry which would stand comparison with major Defence industries in the world. Turkey has one very important thing going forward.  It is one the very few countries of the moment which is increasing Defence spending. Almost all other countries are having to reduce or hold it flat. So when you are increasing your defence budgets and you have a very capable developing industry, you can afford choose your partners from the best of the international industries that available to you. So one of the big changes has been the number of partnerships  which are developed between the UK companies and Turkish companies. These are not partnerships on paper, These are partnerships on an industrial scale. Things happen, products are developed and brought into operation, and interactive service. So this has really made a huge difference to the relationship between UK industry and Turkish industry.

Defence Turkey: In coming days what source of business opportunities could be considered or created for Turkish and British defence industry?

I think there is very a broad range of opportunities. They are very promising developments in land systems and in particular vehicles where UK contributions are very clear for the future. I think there are also very good opportunities in missile systems and we have some excellent partnerships developing in that area. Of course there are opportunities as well in the naval sector where propulsion systems particularly from the UK.  We realize the Turkey has the ambition to develop own first jet for the future. We think UK companies can make a serious contribution to that from the propulsion systems through the radars and all the other intermediate equipment. Companies which are contributed to naval developments in Turkey will bring the latest sonar technologies, the latest protection technologies.  We must not forget security. Turkey wants to host the Olympic games.  We would love to see the Olympic games come to Turkey but when you hold the Olympic games,  you have a big security challenge. Last year London hosted the Olympic games.  If I may say with modesty, it was a great success. One of the success was the security. It was great games cause people come and enjoy themselves, there was no incident but actually spoiled the games for rest of the world. So I think it has actually set a standard for others to follow. We were working very closely with the Brazilians for the Olympics in Rio. We would like to work very closely in the case of Turkey’s beautiful Olympics to provide the kind of security makes a success much more likely.

Defence Turkey: In November 2012 SaSaD and ADS signed a MoU .Could you please inform us about the activities?

 When SaSaD and ADS actually signed the MoU, this was a gain consisted with the partnership between the UK and Turkey. It was a symbol of a determination to work closely with each other.  Now of course an MoU is a piece of paper and it only becomes something realistic when people start working to deliver the aspiration of the MoU. So It is early days yet but all of the work that you see coming through partnering between UK industry and Turkish industry has it roots in that MoU. As the years go by, I expect to see agreed to more activity based on that MoU coming through in the development of Turkish Defence capabilities.

Defence Turkey: What is your approach on joint production and joint R&D projects?

I spent a little bit of meeting with Murad Bayar talking about this. First of all, I have to say that he was very impressed by the progress of two industries made. In fact, he was surprised in a positive way by the amount of progress that has been made in the last 3 years. Where I think we go to next is building only aligned between the two industries.  I would like to bring  governments together because if you want to step up to next level of achievement, you have to have two governments standing behind programs. I think there are many programs where the governments could be productive together in all of the sectors, land, maritime, air we will see which ones come through. 

Defence Turkey: What are your upcoming events and bilateral meetings between Turkey and UK.

We have the DSEI exhibition in London in September. This  is an event very well known to Turkey. You always send a very strong delegation.  I talked about this with Murad Bayar.  We think it is the best exhibition its kind in the world. We would be delighted to see strong Turkish delegation again this year. There are also staff between Arm Forces ,I don’t think a date is fixed for this but there is an intension that should happen. Turkey sent a very strong delegation to Farnborough last year and also to the security and policing exhibition two months ago. So there is a lot of activity carry on all the time between Turkey and the UK. I am very proud of think of Turkey is a great partner for the UK.  I look at Turkey and I see a country with ambition, dynamism, with a lot of achievements.   I look around Istanbul, Ankara, Turkey more widely I see a country with a strong sense of very belongs in the world and the determination to achieve them so I think we have to look forward to. 

Defence Turkey: As you mention before security is one of the issue of British Defence industry, do you think that Cyber security will be a common interest area between UK and Turkey?

I think it will be. Where ever I go in the world,  I meet country leaders and ministers. All of them without an exception identify cyber as the biggest risk. One or two of them have said the thing keeps me awake at night is Cyber. So we believe that there is a great opportunity to bring the UK’s expertise in Cyber protection to countries  we wish to work more closely within the future and Turkey certainly is one of them. Cyber is a very early stage of becoming a realized issue. Many people talk about Cyber. You can’t see it but you know something goes wrong and it can affect every dimension of our lives.  It can affect the finance system, defence systems.  It can undermine the oil and gas industries and energy industries.  It can make serious damage to air traffic control. This goes every aspect of our lives and therefore we need to work closely in order to come back  that treat. The UK is one of the world’s leading Cyber technical capability countries.  We think we can bring a lot to Turkey but everybody must understand the nature of the risk. First think to understand is  the nature of the risk. Once nature of the risk is understood then you start to apply measures to sustain systems and prevent Cyber attacks. I think there are lot to be done between our two countries in that space.

Defence Turkey:Thank you very much for the interview. Finally would you like to give a message to our readers?

For the UK, Turkey represents a great partnership opportunity. Turkey has helped teach us something: If you succeed in the days Defence and security world as an industry, do not expect to be able to sell complete equipment, you have to be prepared to work with the industry of the customer to produce the products. As a consequence of that I believe the relationship of UK and Turkey is on the leading edge of the globalized Defence and security industries. So as I said earlier we look forward to a very bright future together.