Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer have signed a bilateral cooperation agreement on Eurofighter Typhoon jets.
"We regard this as a new symbol of the strategic relations between two close allies," Erdogan said on Monday after signing the agreement with Starmer at the Presidential Complex in Ankara.
The Turkish president said he believes the Eurofighter deal with the UK will open the door to joint defence projects. Erdogan also vowed to boost Türkiye-UK trade to $40 billion and pledged stronger economic ties.
“We are committed to increasing our trade volume with the United Kingdom, initially to $30 billion and eventually to $40 billion. We are determined to strengthen our economic ties.”
“I thank Prime Minister Starmer and his team for the work carried out by the UK within the Eurofighter Consortium throughout the process. I also express my appreciation to the leaders of other allied countries in the consortium for their constructive approach,” he added.
Landmark deal
Starmer said the deal is worth nearly $11 billion.
"This is a really significant deal, because it's $10.7 billion worth of orders; these are jobs that will last for 10 years," he said in Ankara.
The Eurofighter jet agreement between Türkiye and the UK is "a win for NATO security," said Starmer.
Speaking at a joint news conference, Starmer said, “This will bolster security across NATO, deepen our bilateral defence cooperation, and boost economic growth here and in the United Kingdom, securing 20,000 British jobs, building these state-of-the-art fighter jets.”
Starmer called it “a landmark moment reflecting the increasing depth and breadth of our existing cooperation and our ambition to go further.”
Britain's defence ministry said the order would involve 20 Eurofighter jets.
According to the UK government, Defence Secretary John Healey, who accompanied Starmer to Ankara, also said:
“Türkiye is an important NATO ally and the gatekeeper to the Black Sea. By equipping them with top-of-the-range Typhoon fighter jets, this deal will strengthen NATO deterrence and help make us all safer."
The UK government called the agreement "the biggest fighter jet export deal in a generation."
It said it will help sustain a 20,000-strong UK workforce, with production lines in Edinburgh, Warton, Samlesbury, and Bristol.
Not just an aircraft
Last week, Airbus Defence and Space CEO Michael Schoellhorn said the Eurofighter deal could establish a long-term partnership with Türkiye as they scale up production and develop more advanced models with new technologies.
Türkiye, which maintains NATO's second-largest military force, plans to acquire Eurofighter Typhoon jets, multi-role combat aircraft jointly manufactured by the UK, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
“Eurofighter is more than just an aircraft. There’s a system behind it. There's a weapon set behind it. There is, in the future, connectivity that's coming with it. There will be man-unmanned teaming solutions,” Schoellhorn said, referring to new technology that enables collaboration between a human pilot and an AI-controlled or autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle.
Eurofighter Typhoon jets are currently used by five European countries, the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Austria, and four Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar.
