Turkish, British top diplomats reaffirm strategic ties

LONDON

Turkish and British top diplomats have reaffirmed strategic ties between the two NATO allies as they discussed ways to deepen bilateral ties and regional and international conflicts.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, in his first official trip to the U.K., met Foreign Secretary David Lammy and other officials in London on Oct. 30.

Lammy and Fidan have underlined the achievement the two countries have made in building a strong and solid relationship over the past decades and vowed to move it forward.

"Türkiye and the U.K. have been benefiting from the strategic relations," Fidan told before the meeting. "Our aim is to increase it."

For his part, Lammy has described the bilateral ties between the NATO allies as indispensable.

He also repeated his solidarity with Türkiye and the Turkish people over the last week’s terrorist attack against a leading defense industry facility in Ankara that killed five civilians.

The two ministers have reiterated that they will raise upgrading the existing free trade agreement in a bid to boost the already strong trade ties.

Türkiye and the U.K. signed a free trade agreement in late 2020 following the Brexit. At that time, they also agreed to expand the scope of the agreement for increasing the trade volume which was recorded as around $20 billion in 2023.

Another important area on which Türkiye and the U.K. are working is the defense industry. Fidan and Lammy discussed Türkiye’s intentions to supply 40 Eurofighter jetfighters after Germany, one of the consortium partners, have greenlighted the sale of the Eurofighters.

The U.K. is leading the consortium composed of Germany, Spain and Italy.

The ministers did also review the latest developments in the wars between Russia and Ukraine as well as Israel and Hamas in the Middle East.