Amid war in Ukraine, the United Kingdom has lifted the defense industry export ban imposed on Turkey, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Thursday. The minister hinted that Canada is also aiming to loosen the ban.
Çavuşoğlu was speaking at a press conference in Brussels, where he attended the NATO foreign ministers' meeting.
"We spoke with British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. We followed up the issues that came to the fore in the meeting between U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in this hall about 15 days ago," the minister said, emphasizing that one of the issues concerns engine procurement of the TFX National Combat Aircraft, Turkey’s one of the most awaited defense projects.
"The U.K. has lifted export restrictions. We are pleased with that," Çavuşoğlu said.
However, he added that they want to improve cooperation with the U.K. in important defense projects, including warplanes, warships and aircraft carriers.
Russia invaded its neighbor, Ukraine, on Feb. 24, though Moscow calls it a "special military operation." NATO ally Turkey shares a maritime border with Ukraine and Russia in the Black Sea and maintains good relations with both.
While it has criticized Russia's offensive, Ankara is trying to balance its close ties and has positioned itself as a neutral party trying to mediate.
Turkey, meanwhile, has also sold Ukraine its world-renowned combat drones, which were proven effective in Syria, Libya and Nagorno Karabakh – either operated by the Turkish army or the purchasing countries.
Previously, some NATO allies, namely Canada, canceled export permits for drone technology to Turkey after concluding that the country sold the equipment to the Azerbaijani military forces during the war in the Armenian-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The parts under embargo included camera systems for Baykar-made unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which are now also used against Russia by the Ukrainian military. Export licenses were suspended in 2019 during Turkish military activities in Syria. Restrictions were then eased but reimposed during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Çavuşoğlu went on to say that some countries, "such as Canada," have already taken steps regarding the easing of restrictions in the defense industry.
He stated that the most important issue on the agenda during his bilateral meeting with Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly was the restrictions in the defense industry and that they agreed to overcome this issue.
Meanwhile, Turkish defense companies have also been working toward producing embargoed parts within the country. There are already Bayraktar TB2 UAVs in the Turkish army’s inventory that were equipped with the leading defense firm Aselsan-developed Common Aperture Targeting System (CATS), replacing Canadian-made ones.