Tajikistan and Turkiye have signed a military and financial cooperation agreement, and a protocol on financial aid.

Turkiye’s Anadolu Agency (AA) reports that the document was inked by Turkish National Defense Minister Yasar Guler and his Tajik counterpart, Colonel-General Sherali Mirzo, on July 26 in Istanbul, Turkiye at a meeting on the sidelines of the 16th International Defense Industry Fair (IDEF) 2023.

The four-day IDEF, starting on July 25, is reportedly exhibiting a range of defense products including land vehicles, weapons, simulators, radar, sonar, naval platform solutions, aviation systems, missiles, logistic vehicles, supply equipment, and security systems.

The International Defense Industry Fair, or İDEF, is a defense industry fair held in Turkiye and organized by the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) Foundation since 1993.  The TAF Foundation organizes the IDEF once in every two years and before each fair it chooses the organizer firm and exhibition venue by calling a tender.  The exhibitions generally take place in Ankara or Istanbul.

The fair has been held every odd year since 1993. IDEF, as a high technology defense industry fair, incorporating main defense industry branches and their subordinates, is an essential international marketing arena for defense industry companies. IDEF is the biggest defense industry fair in Eurasian region and one of the top four in the world with an increasing trend in terms of the number of participating countries, delegations and companies.

Recall, the then Turkish National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and Tajik Defense Minister Sherali Mirzo signed the military frame agreement in Turkiye’s capital, Ankara, on April 21, 2022. 

It is to be noted that Tajikistan’s Ambassador to Turkey Ashrafjon Gulov met in Ankara with Hulusi Akar on January 18 last year to discuss increasing bilateral cooperation on defense.

Besides, Turkish defense minister was in Tajikistan in July 2021.  On July 1, 2021, Akar was received by his Tajik counterpart Colonel-General Sherali Mirzo with a military ceremony at Tajikistan’s Defense Ministry.

The Turkish Armed Forces, which consists of the General Staff, the Land Forces, the Naval Forces and the Air Forces, is the second largest standing military force in NATO, after the U.S. Armed Forces.

The Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Turkiye established diplomatic relations on January 29, 1992.

Both are members of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), an Asian political and economic intergovernmental organization.

Tajik–Turkish relations are friendly and cooperative and underlined with a legal basis of more than 65 treaties and protocols which have been signed between two countries since 1991.

The Turkish Agency for Cooperation and Coordination (TIKA) in Tajikistan plays an important role in the development of bilateral relations between the two countries.  Dozens of projects were implemented in Tajikistan by this Agency.