Azerbaijan, Turkey to discuss expanding military co-op
By Vafa Ismayilova
The 13th meeting of the Azerbaijan-Turkey high-level military dialogue will begin its work in Baku on June 3, the Defence Ministry has reported.
The meeting participants will discuss the current state of bilateral cooperation in the security, military, military-technical, military-medical, military-educational, military-industrial, and other spheres.
Moreover, the parties will consider the prospects for development and the main areas of activity in the military and defence spheres.
In early May, officials from the management of the Turkish Defence Industry Executive Committee, STM, ROKETSAN, HAVELSAN companies, and ASELSAN-Baku office visited Azerbaijan to discuss bilateral military cooperation and identified ways to implement joint projects, considering the new methods of conducting modern combat operations, especially the combat experience gained during the second Karabakh war.
In early April, it was reported that Azerbaijan and Turkey will set up a joint commission under an agreement on cooperation in the defence industry between the Azerbaijani and Turkish governments.
The commission will consist of members of the Defence Industry Council under the Turkish National Defence Ministry and the Azerbaijani Defence Industry Ministry.
The task of the joint commission will be to implement the clauses of the above agreement. On April 5, 2021, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ratified the agreement, which was signed in Baku in 2017.
In January, Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmat Hajiyev said that Azerbaijan witnessed the successful result of the military-technical cooperation with Turkey and the effectiveness of the Bayraktar UAVs that Azerbaijan used in the battles during the war.
The top official underlined that the successful result of cooperation and effectiveness of the UAVs are based on great scientific potential. Hajiyev said that the two countries established close cooperation in the scientific field as well.
"Our main goal for the coming period is to strengthen this cooperation," the presidential aide noted.
Turkey and Russia are represented with an equal number of servicemen in the joint center to monitor the situation in and around Nagorno-Karabakh under a trilateral peace agreement signed by Azerbaijan, Russia and Armenia on November 10 to end the war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
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