Over 60 Turkish firms attend defense fair in Riyadh

ISTANBUL

Some 63 Turkish companies attended the second edition of the World Defense Show that was held in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh between Feb. 4 and 8.

Türkiye was the second-largest country in terms of the number of companies present at the fair, said Haluk Görgün, the president of Defense Industries.

Companies held meetings and some deals were sealed, Görgün said, without providing further details.

“We also held talks with our counterparts, ministers and executives from other countries… We may see the results of those meetings in the period ahead,” he added.

The World Defense Show offers a platform where key defense figures, government officials, decision-makers, and across all levels of the supply chain gather.

Türkiye’s defense and aerospace exports reached a record $5.55 billion last year, rising from $4.4 billion in 2022.

The industry’s exports rose more than 18 percent in January from a year ago to amount to $330 million, accounting for 1.9 percent of Türkiye’s all export revenues in the month.

The country’s defense exports stood at only $248 million in 2022, exceeding the $ 1 billion mark for the first time in 2011.

The number of projects carried out by local defense firms rose from 62 in 2002 to more than 850 last year.

The size of defense projects soared from $5.5 billion to $90 billion over the same period.