Ankara, Kyiv to jointly produce corvettes, motors, UAVs, Zelenskiy says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday said that bilateral relations between Ankara and Kyiv have reached an all-time high.

Speaking at Ukrainian Parliament following his visit to Ankara, Zelenskiy praised the degree of cooperation in various fields including the business and defense industry between the two countries.

He said that the two countries will begin to jointly produce corvettes, motors, unmanned aerial vehicles and air defense systems.

The two countries initially agreed to reach $10 billion in bilateral trade but then raised it to $20 billion.

Zelenskiy visited Ankara last week upon invitation from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The two leaders oversaw the signing of a “goodwill” agreement concerning the defense industry and a “military framework agreement,” according to officials, although details of the agreements were not immediately known.

Defense relations between the two countries have developed rapidly, with military-technical cooperation between Ukraine and Turkey's defense industries carrying various mutual benefits.

Last year, Ukraine purchased six Bayraktar TB2 armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and three ground control station systems from Turkey. Also, Ukrainian aircraft producer Antonov aims to cooperate with the Turkish aviation industry for the production of AN-178 aircraft, the company’s CEO Oleksandr Los said last month.