Turkish Minister National Defence Fikri Işık announced that an agreement has been reached with Italy and France on production of a joint air defence missile. Işık, who attended the reception held on the occasion of the French National Day at the Embassy of France in Ankara, talked about the defence industry projects of Turkey and France. “One of the most concrete developments of our business alliance in the field of defence industry has been today's agreement between the EUROSAM consortium and the Turkish defense industry on common interest in joint development and production of air and missile defence systems. Turkish, French and Italian companies in this business alliance will work to define the system in question according to the needs of all three countries.”

On the question of the S-400 air and missile defence system planned to be acquired from Russia, Işık said that was a completely different subject.

“The project we initiated with EUROSAM is a business alliance that Turkey will pursue in its efforts to develop its own air and missile defence system,” said Işık, who stated that the S-400 purchase was an urgent need of Turkey.

“The project covers research, development and joint production. This is a very large and comprehensive project of three allied nations under NATO umbrella. So, we began to walk on the same path here. We believe this path will lead us to much better places not only in this area but also in other areas of defence industry.”