Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Kazakhstan Aselsan Engineering defense facility was officially inaugurated in Astana on December 10.

The facility is a new Kazakh-Turkish joint venture which will produce electron-optical devices.

The joint venture has been created according to an agreement between the heads of both states.

Kazakh Defense Minister Adilbek Dzhaksybekov and his visiting Turkish counterpart Ismet Yilmaz attended the inauguration ceremony.

The new plant will produce optical-electronic equipment.

The facility is planned to produce a wide range of electronic plates used in various machines (from undersea boats to space vehicles). The enterprise will also include the technical services and training of personnel.

At the next stage, the facility will produce infrared lenses. The production, processing and coating of infrared lenses will be done at the nano-level.

The plant is going to be the first facility producing such high quality products in the region.

Kazakhstan and Turkey are successfully cooperating in the defense field. Over 150 Kazakh military serviceman have been trained in Turkish military academies since 1997. Currently, 70 persons are trained in Turkey.

As part of the visit, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev received Turkish defense minister.

During the meeting the two sides discussed bilateral cooperation in the military-technical field. In particular, the two countries mulled the prospects of partnership within the newly-opened Kazakh-Turkish joint venture on production of electron-optical devices.

The Kazakh president noted the importance of this enterprise for further development of interaction between the two countries in the defense industry field. Nazarbayev also paid special attention to the importance of providing the facility with qualified local specialists.

Yilmaz, for his part, said that construction of this facility is the result of progressing bilateral cooperation in the military-technical field.

He also noted the existence of good prospective for cooperation in this field and expressed confidence for further development of partnership.