In our previous issue, we published the first part of an interview with the CEO of Ukrainian state enterprise UkrOboronProm (UOP), Mr. Roman Romanov. UOP and Turkish Undersecretariat for Defence Industries (SSM) have signed many agreements and MoUs to develop bilateral relations. Prior to International Defence Industry Fair (IDEF), we discussed with Mr. Romanov about Ukraine’s vision and cooperation with Turkey.
C4Defence: Turkey wants to maintain close relations with Ukraine. However, it has also improved its relations with Russia recently. Considering that Ukraine and Russia do not get along well these days, how do you interpret that Turkey is in good relations with both countries?
UOP CEO Roman Romanov: Maybe you already felt through the dialog we had so far; our team and I are business-oriented. We are not politicians. This approach is what helped us achieve our goals during this two-year period. I have renewed the team in such a way that now, all team members are either Western-educated or they hold an MBA degree. Accordingly, these people work not because of a certain political situation, but in consideration of business benefits. Political questions are reserved for the Ministry of Defence. We are equally open to all our partners. The most important thing is to do our work in a proper fashion. Two things rule the world; politics and economics. And we are on the side of economics. We always try to proceed in a way that our partners benefit. Then, the Turkish companies/Turkish people would benefit from our business, as well as Ukraine. It is up to our customers to choose what is more important for them.
