Defence reach expands
Turkish officials signalled three major moves to boost the defence industry’s export reach while the government has also deployed personnel and equipment to Niger as part of a broader security footprint. Reports frame the push as an effort to expand cooperation into new regions and to stabilise partners’ security apparatuses. (dailysabah.com) (dailysabah.com)
Türkiye moved this month to widen its defense footprint on two tracks: new export agreements in Latin America and Asia, and a training mission in Niger. (dailysabah.com 1) (dailysabah.com 2) Daily Sabah reported on April 12 that Ankara sees three new openings for its defense industry, tied to agreements with Chile, Peru and Bangladesh. A week earlier, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the next goal is to produce more high-technology military systems, faster and in larger volumes. (dailysabah.com 1) (dailysabah.com 2) The export push comes after Türkiye’s defense and aerospace shipments reached $1.91 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up 12.1% from a year earlier, according to official data cited by Daily Sabah on April 3. In April 2025, the sector posted $539 million in monthly exports and $7.64 billion over the previous 12 months, figures that officials described as part of a sustained climb. (dailysabah.com) (aa.com.tr) In Niger, the immediate change is operational rather than commercial. Daily Sabah’s April 13 report said Türkiye agreed to send personnel and equipment after Defense Minister Yaşar Güler met Nigerien Defense Minister General Salifou Mody in Ankara on April 7. (dailysabah.com) A Stratfor situation report, citing Jeune Afrique, said the April 8 agreement provides for Turkish military instructors to train Nigerien security forces. That follows a Military Financial Cooperation Agreement signed by Türkiye and Niger at the International Defense Industry Fair in Istanbul on July 24, 2025. (worldview.stratfor.com) (aa.com.tr) The Niger move lands in a Sahel region that has been reshaped by coups, foreign troop withdrawals and a scramble for new security partners. Africa Defense Forum wrote in February that Turkey has been pitching itself across Africa as a supplier of weapons, training and infrastructure without the political conditions often attached by Western governments. (adf-magazine.com) Bangladesh has been moving in the same direction for longer. Anadolu Agency reported in July 2025 that Bangladesh Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman asked for closer defense cooperation and joint production with Türkiye, after years in which Dhaka had already become a major buyer of Turkish systems. (aa.com.tr 1) (aa.com.tr 2) Chile has also become a test case for Turkish firms in Latin America. Türkiye Today reported in 2025 that Aselsan and Havelsan were already running military modernization projects there, and Aselsan had opened a Santiago office in March 2024. (turkiyetoday.com) Ankara presents these agreements as industrial policy as much as diplomacy: more overseas buyers can help finance domestic production lines for drones, electronics, missiles and naval systems. Critics of Turkey’s broader military outreach, including analysts cited by BBC Monitoring and Middle East Forum, argue the same network of deals also expands Ankara’s political leverage well beyond its immediate neighborhood. (monitoring.bbc.co.uk) (meforum.org) What happens next is less about one contract than about repetition. If the Chile, Peru, Bangladesh and Niger tracks turn into deliveries, training cycles and follow-on agreements, Türkiye’s defense industry will be selling farther from home while its security role grows on the ground. (dailysabah.com) (dailysabah.com)
