18 companies operating within the Turkish Defense Industry exhibited their products and capabilities at the Langkawi International Maritime and Aviation Fair (LIMA 2023), one of the largest defense fairs in the Asia-Pacific Region.
According to the information received by the Anadolu Agency correspondent, there has been a very close cooperation between Turkey and Malaysia lately.
After the Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes, the Malaysian Government and Armed Forces provided their support and assistance in cash and in kind, especially the field hospital, to Turkey.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim visited Turkey 9 days after the earthquake and conveyed his support to the Turkish people.
During the visit, mutual consultations were held in order to improve relations between countries, and in this context, cooperation in the field of defense industry and potential projects were also discussed.
During the talks in question, it was decided to establish a "state-to-state sales mechanism" between the two friendly and brotherly countries in the field of defense industry and to maintain direct relations without using any intermediary firm.
For this purpose, the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) has been tasked with the implementation of defense industry cooperation projects with the Malaysian Government.
In this context, SSB submitted the draft of the "Cooperation Agreement" to the Malaysian Ministry of Defense in order to establish the legal infrastructure of the "state-to-state sales mechanism".
While the talks continue as planned, SSB is holding direct talks with the Malaysian State regarding various projects, especially the Littoral Mission Ship (LMS) and 155 millimeter Self-Propelled Howitzer projects.
With the "state-to-state sales mechanism", successful export projects were implemented with countries such as Bangladesh, Philippines, North Macedonia and Albania under the leadership of the SSB.
"WE HOPE TO COME WITH MORE GOOD NEWS"
Presidency Defense Industry Vice President Serdar Demirel evaluated the contacts of the Turkish delegation within the scope of the fair and the cooperation efforts for the countries in the region, especially Malaysia.
Expressing that the fair was extremely successful in line with his expectations, Demirel said that they had one-on-one meetings with senior civilian and military decision makers in Malaysia.
Demirel stated that they signed a contract for the sale of ANKA unmanned aerial vehicles to Malaysia, and that HAVELSAN has signed various cooperation agreements and TITRA Technology has also signed a partnership.
"Above all, we have agreed on an agreement with Malaysia that will provide partnership and cooperation in defense procurement. From now on, we hope that our defense industry relations with Malaysia will progress much more and we will be able to come with greater good news. In this respect, it was a short-lived but extremely successful fair for us," Demirel said.
"WE FEEL THE TURKISH PRESENCE AGAIN"
Demirel emphasized that Southeast Asia has been an important market for Türkiye since the beginning.
Pointing out that the cooperation that started with Malaysia and Indonesia has spread to the countries in the region, Demirel said:
"We have very serious relations with the Philippines and many countries in the region. We're here for partnership, not to sell weapons anymore. We have partnership agreements with many countries. We are making agreements with each other as two states and our work on this issue continues. I hope we will give much greater good news in the future. For example, we will have good news in the joint production of the KAAN aircraft, which our President will be promoting very soon, and in many similar projects. Southeast Asia is a region close to our homeland, Central Asia. We think that we feel the Turkish presence here again."