ANKARA: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed an agreement to sell Eurofighter jets to NATO member Türkiye in a 10-year deal worth nearly $11 billion after talks on Monday with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"This is a really significant deal, because it's £8 billion ($10.7 billion) worth of orders ... These are jobs that will last for 10 years, making the (Eurofighter) Typhoons, so really big for our country," Starmer said.
Britain's defense ministry described the order, which involves 20 Eurofighter Typhoon planes, as the "biggest fighter jet deal in a generation", saying it would strengthen Türkiye's combat capabilities and bolster "NATO's strength in a key region."
Starmer said the deal would "bolster security across NATO" and secure 20,000 British jobs, adding it included the option to supply more Eurofighters in the future.
Erdogan hailed the agreement as "a new symbol of the strategic relations" with Britain, and thanked the other members of the four-nation consortium that builds the jets: Germany, Italy, and Spain.
British defense minister John Healey, who travelled to Ankara with Starmer, said the deal "goes far beyond" aircraft.
"It is the leading edge of the growing defense and industrial partnership between our two nations," he said, calling Türkiye "an important NATO ally and the gatekeeper to the Black Sea."
Spying scandal
But the high-profile visit was clouded by a spying scandal that erupted late on Sunday, after a Turkish court charged Istanbul's jailed opposition mayor with espionage over his links to a Turkish businessman allegedly spying for Britain.
Neither side commented on the affair, which dominated the headlines in Türkiye on Monday morning.
Starmer arrived with Healey and Air Chief Marshal Harv Smyth, the head of Britain's air force, who were welcomed by their Turkish counterparts, Türkiye's defense ministry said.
As part of Starmer's visit, three Eurofighter jets of the Royal Air Force also arrived in Türkiye, the ministry added.
Apart from those three jets escorted to an air base near Ankara, two more Eurofighter jets also arrived in Türkiye, a Turkish security source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press.
It was not immediately clear whether the two jets would be handed over to Türkiye or would be used for the training of Turkish pilots.
Ankara has been looking to modernise its air force and is pushing to acquire 40 of the European-made fighter aircraft.
Negotiations with London gained pace after Germany, in July, lifted its veto on the sale over Ankara's hardline stance on the Gaza war.
"Türkiye and the Eurofighter is quite the saga," Aaron Stein, head of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told AFP, saying Ankara had turned down an offer to join the European consortium building the jets, focusing instead on the US F-35 fighter jet programme.
After Washington booted Ankara out of its F-35 programme in 2019 over its purchase of an S-400 Russian surface-to-air missile defense system, Türkiye turned its attention to Europe.
Qatari leader's visit
Last week, Erdogan held talks in Doha with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, with Türkiye floating plans to acquire some of the emirate's Eurofighters.
Qatar ordered 24 Eurofighters in 2017, with the last two due to be delivered this year. It moved to acquire 12 more late last year, observers said.
Any such move would likely be part of the deal with London, which would have to grant its approval for a transfer, analysts said.
The Qatari leader is in Ankara on Tuesday for talks to clarify certain outstanding issues, the Turkish official said.
The Eurofighter jets delivered to Türkiye on Monday were likely to be those that had been destined for Qatar, Stein said.
Instead of being sent to Doha, "they'll simply be shipped to Türkiye," he explained.
Gaza's future was also likely to feature in talks between Erdogan and Starmer, with Türkiye keen to join an international stabilisation force — an idea opposed by Israel.
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