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Everything you need to know about Theresa May's £100m defence deal with Turkey

Everything you need to know about Theresa May's £100m defence deal with Turkey
Everything you need to know about Theresa May's £100m defence deal with Turkey Everything you need to know about Theresa May's £100m defence deal with Turkey

Theresa May has just announced a £100 million deal for a UK firm to build fighter jets for Turkey, while on a trip to Ankara.

She announced the deal with Turkish PM Binali Yildirim, and also met with the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Here’s what you need to know about one of the UK’s first big post-referendum deals.

What’s actually been agreed?

The deal was announced during a press conference with Turkish PM Binali Yildirim (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

During the visit, the UK firm BAE Systems and Turkish Aerospace Industries signed a Heads of Agreement document establishing a partnership for the continued development of the Turkish Fighter Programme.

British officials said the contract would protect jobs at BAE Systems and could lead to opportunities worth far more than £100 million over the lifetime of the project.

Potential future contracts could provide engines, weapons, radars and sensors.

What do people think about the meeting with Erdogan?

The Turkish embassy in London (Isabel Infantes/PA)

Groups like Amnesty International UK were hoping May would bring up human rights when she met with the controversial Turkish president.

The country has been in a state of emergency since a failed coup last July, which the government has used to remove thousands of public officials, including judges and academics, and clamp down on the media – shutting several outlets.

After the meeting, May said: “Now it’s important that Turkey sustains that democracy by maintaining the rule of law and upholding its international human rights obligations, as the government has undertaken to do,” which was pretty tame.

What was the coup all about?

Last July, Erdogan was subject to a botched coup, during which he famously appeared on national TV via FaceTime and urged the public to take to the streets to prevent it.At the president’s military palace, May told the press: “I’m proud the UK stood with you on July 15 last year in defence of your democracy.”

Hold on, wasn’t she just with Donald Trump?

May was the first prime minister to meet with President Trump (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Never one to waste time, May’s nipped to Ankara on the way back from her visit to the White House. Not only was she the first prime minister to meet with President Trump, but she’s also the first Western leader to have talks with Turkey’s president since the coup.

Is more trade with Turkey on the agenda?

Both parties are keen for more trade post-Brexit (Andrew Parsons/PA)

Post-Brexit trade was on everyone’s minds during the visit.It’s also in everybody’s interests, because Turkey isn’t part of the EU (yet).Erdogan said he wanted to increase trade between Turkey and the UK to £15.9 billion from its current level of £12.4 billion.He also said he hoped for “further co-operation”, particularly in energy and defence, including predator drones, which the pair also discussed.

What else did they talk about?

Downing Street aides did not rule out raising human rights at the talks (Andrew Parsons/PA)

The leaders talked about ISIS in Syria, the reunification of Cyprus (a big deal for Turkey, which still has 30,000 soldiers in the north of the island) as well as counter-terrorism, security, and migration.It’s not surprising their meeting went on an hour over schedule then.