Turkey and France Sign Military Cooperation Program Including Training Courses and Joint Exercises

Turkey and France signed a “roadmap to develop their relations in the fields of defense and security” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, according to official sources yesterday. The roadmap specifically calls for “addressing multi-domain threats, exchanging intelligence information, enhancing cooperation in air defense, and improving operational compatibility of weapons systems,” according to the Turkish Ministry of Defense. Joint training courses and exercises are also planned, along with “exchanges between military academies.” Periodic meetings will be held alternately in Paris and Ankara, with the first meeting scheduled for the last quarter of 2026, according to the same source. On Saturday, the Director General of International Relations and Strategy of the French Army praised his meeting in Paris with his Turkish counterpart, Lieutenant General Elkay Altındağ, to conduct a bilateral strategic dialogue. Guillaume Olaniyan wrote on LinkedIn that “in a geopolitical environment marked by war in Ukraine and ongoing tensions in the Middle East, this meeting allowed us to exchange our analyses and identify points of convergence,” referring at the time to the “roadmap.” Both countries are members of the “Coalition of the Willing,” which is prepared to implement security guarantees for Ukraine following a potential ceasefire with Russia. From an industrial perspective, Turkey has shown interest for years in the Franco-Italian mobile surface-to-air missile system, SAMP/T (also known as MAMBA).