Turkey, Qatar, Pakistan and Indonesia have signed the “Badr memorandum of understanding” to strengthen cooperation in their defence industries. Under it the countries will step up cooperation in joint arms production, technology transfer, research and development, and technical training. The memorandum was signed in the Qatari capital, Doha, on Wednesday (21 October).
Anadolu Agency reported that the four countries signed the memorandum with the aim of building integrated cooperation in arms production, training, and research and development.
At the signing ceremony in Doha, Turkey was represented by its national defence minister, Yasar Guler. Qatar’s minister of state for defence affairs, Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman bin Hassan Al Thani, Indonesia’s defence minister, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, and Pakistan’s defence minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, signed for their countries.
The cooperation will be coordinated by Turkey’s Presidency of Defence Industries. It will not be limited to supplying military platforms and equipment: there are also plans for joint arms production projects, integrated supply chains and wider exchange of defence technology and information.
The Badr memorandum, however, contains no mutual defence obligation. If one of the participating countries is attacked, the others are under no legal obligation to intervene militarily. The agreement’s main aim is to expand cooperation in the defence industry.
In August, Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed the “Mecca joint defence agreement”. Like NATO, it treats an attack on one member as an attack on all.
The key difference is that the new memorandum centres on defence-industry cooperation and contains no commitment to mutual military defence.
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