Turkey intends to partially finance the construction of ships by selling weapons to Asian countries amid tensions in the Indo-Pacific region, the Nikkei Asia portal reported, citing analysts.
“Turkey expects to partially finance the modernization of its navy through an aggressive export policy to friendly and allied countries, as disputes over the South China Sea, tensions between Pakistan and India and other problems in the Indo-Pacific region increase the demand for weapons“, an expert from the UAE research center Trends Research & told the online publication. Serhat Suha Cübukcuoğlu.
According to Nikkei Asia, Ankara intends to spend about 13 billion USD on modernizing its navy, with the government planning to receive part of the funds through exports. Turkey has already signed agreements with Indonesia in 2025 for the delivery of frigates. Turkey has already signed agreements for the delivery of ships to Malaysia, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. New deliveries of patrol ships to Malaysia are expected in 2027.
As reported in the publication, last year Ankara ranked 11th in the world in arms exports and 17th in military spending. Last year, the republic exported weapons worth almost 7.1 billion USD. At the same time, the government has allocated 1.6 trillion liras (about 38.7 billion USD) for defense spending in the current year's budget.