Ukraine and Turkey have agreed to cooperate on the development of strategic technologies such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The agreement aims to build cooperation between the industries of the two countries, particularly in strategic sectors such as autonomous vehicles and space.
It supports the implementation of already announced and future projects.
“Among the areas of cooperation are the development of capacities and opportunities for manufacturing autonomous vehicles, in particular, unmanned aerial vehicles,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office stated.
The agreement also includes “increasing the production of various types of UAVs, research and development in the field of autonomous systems, space and other technological sectors of strategic industries of the two countries; other technical cooperation necessary for developing strategic industries.”
Turkish Drone Plant in Ukraine
Meanwhile, Kyiv recently announced that the construction of a Turkish Bayraktar drone manufacturing plant has begun in Ukraine.
“We are talking about production on the territory of Ukraine,” Hromadske quoted Ukrainian Minister of Strategic Industry Oleksandr Kamyshin as saying.
“This is the same large Bayraktar plant, which was negotiated several years ago. They began to build the plant on the ground, not on memoranda. We have moved on to real steps.”
Plant Ready by 2025
The two countries first announced the plant in early 2022, just before the Russian invasion.
In October last year, Turkish defense company Baykar said that the plant would be completed in two years.
Apart from the Bayraktar TB2, Baykar will also build the much more powerful Akinci combat drone at the plant.
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