The Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni He met the president of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan In Rome, to sign several agreements between the two countries that had been negotiated in recent months. The two leaders spoke of migration, commercial exchanges and above all in the defense sector.
The meeting between Meloni and Erdogan has made official the partnership between the main Turkish weapons manufacturer, Baykarand the Italian public company that deals with defense, Leonardo. A joint venture will be created which will produce military drones both in Leonardo’s plants in Italy and in Baykar in Türkiye.
The meeting between Meloni and Erdogan
The meeting between Meloni and Erdogan took place on the afternoon of April 29. The two leaders concluded the meeting with the signature of 11 agreements and with a press conference, in front of a very selected audience of journalists, who were unable to ask questions. Meloni and Erdogan spoke of immigration, trade and defense.
The Turkish president is going through a complex period of his long stay in power in the country. After the arrest of his main political opponent, the former mayor of Istanbul Ekrem imamogluhis government has undergone very hard criticism, also from the population, which gave birth to great demonstrations in the square.
From the meeting with Meloni, the Turkish president has mainly obtained support from Italy for the restart of the process of European integration of Ankara. For years Turkey had been one of the main candidates to enter the EU, but following the increasingly authoritarian attitude of the government of Erdogan, its position has moved away from that of Brussels.
The collaboration between Baykar and Leonardo
From an economic point of view, the most important agreement signed by Meloni and Erdogan is that for the creation of a Joint venture between Leonardo and Baykar. The new company should use Italian and Turkish technologies to create a new generation of military drones, to be manufactured in both countries.
Baykar is one of the most appreciated producers of military drones in the world. His Bayraktar had a decisive impact on the war in Ukraine, changing the way to fight compared to the conflicts of the past. Leonardo is the most important company in the defense sector in Italy, and is publicly owned.
Baykar, on the other hand, is private, but one of the two brothers who leads her, Selçuk Bayraktar, is closely linked to the president of Turkey Erdogan on a personal level, being his son -in -law.
Relations between Italy and Türkiye
These new agreements have sealed the proximity between Italy and Türkiye. The relationships between the two countries have always been quite good, but recently they had cracked. The president of the Council Mario Draghi in 2022 had severely criticized the authoritarian attitudes of Erdogan, coming to define the Turkish president a “dictator”.
Meloni instead seems to focus a lot on this report, especially for the control that Ankara has exercised on migration From the Middle East to Europe, after the agreements taken with the EU. In the past, the leader of Fratelli d’Italia had in turn had disagreements with Turkey and had opposed its entry into the European Union.
