Turkey Begins Construction Of First Of Four MILGEM-Class Warships It Is Building For Pakistan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Sunday (29 September) that Turkey has initiated the construction of a warship which will be sold to the Navy of Pakistan, reports The Economic Times.

Erdogan made the announcement while commissioning two naval ships for Pakistan, the Turkish TCG Kinaliada and a MILGEM-class ship. The contract for four such MILGEM-class ships which can be hidden from radars had been signed between Pakistan and Turkey in July 2018.

While the first of these MILGEM-class ships has been built-in Turkey, one more will be built there before the building of the other two begins in Pakistan under technology transfer. Hailing Turkey's ties with Pakistan, Erdogan opined that the bilateral relations between two nations hold 'great potential' for cooperation in defence production.

It should be noted that during the recently concluded United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session in New York, Turkey along with China and Malaysia was one of the only few nations to have backed Pakistan's concerns over the Kashmir issue against India.