Turkey imposes a comprehensive ban on arms sales to India
The decision was taken to support Pakistan and is linked to geopolitical and trade factors. The sensitive news is found in minutes of a recent meeting at the Foreign Affairs Committee. The number two of the defence industry agency told the committee that no sales are allowed if the buyer is based in or is linked to India.
Istanbul (AsiaNews) – Turkey has discreetly imposed a comprehensive ban on the export of weapons and defence-related items to India, one of the world’s leading arms importers, to show its support for Pakistan, India’s main rival in South Asia.
The decision, which has major geopolitical and economic significance, was taken in a closed-door session of the Turkish Parliament.
According to the minutes taken at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee on 10 July 2024, Mustafa Murat Şeker, deputy chairman of the Defence Industry Agency (SSB)[*], Turkey’s top arms procurement body, inadvertently disclosed the government’s secret policy regarding India.
While describing the matter as sensitive, Şeker told the committee that no single item construed as military in nature has been approved by the government if the customer is based in India.
Despite concern for any repercussions should the decision became public, the SSB deputy chairman confirmed the ban, according to the minutes obtained by the Nordic Research Monitoring Network (Nordic Monitor), an organisation that focuses on terrorism, security and military issues.
“India, for example, is one of the world’s top five arms importers, a massive market, importing close to 0 billion. However, due to our political circumstances and our friendship with Pakistan, our Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not give us positive feedback on exporting any products to India, and consequently, we do not grant any permits to our companies in this regard,” Mustafa Murat Şeker is quoted as saying.
The sale of Turkish defence matériel, a rapidly expanding sector that involves the family of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, requires the prior green light from the military, the SSB, and the Foreign Ministry.
The minutes show that India has been placed on a blacklist of countries to which Turkey cannot sell military and defence items.
The follows a marked deterioration in relations between the two countries over the past decade under Erdogan's administration due to political choices, in particular Turkey’s blanket support for Pakistan in its disputes with India.
The gap between the two G20 member countries has in fact widened over the years. In a previous report, Nordic Monitor shows how Turkey secretly helped Pakistan in various fields: from setting up a cyber army aimed at shaping public opinion and influencing Muslims in Southeast Asia to launching attacks against the United States and India and censoring criticism of Pakistan.
The proposal to establish a cyber unit was first put forward during private talks in Islamabad between the then Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and his Pakistani counterpart Shehryar Khan Afridi on 17 December 2018.
The issue was then discussed at a higher level and kept confidential from most of the staff of Pakistan’s Interior Ministry in Islamabad.
The plan was also approved by Imran Khan, then prime minister as well as interior minister, during a meeting with Soylu on the same day.
The antagonism between Ankara and Delhi do not only concern weapons, but touch also strategic choices in global trade, starting with the disagreement over a proposal by India, the United States, and the European Union at the G20 summit in New Delhi to create an economic corridor connecting Europe to India, across the Middle East by rail and sea routes.
Excluded from this corridor, Turkey has openly expressed its opposition to the initiative, which undermines its role as a trade hub and favours Greece and other regional competitors. For this reason, Turkey backs China’s development plans as part of the its Belt and Road Initiative, the "new Silk Road".
[*] Savunma Sanayii Başkanlığı
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