What are China’s plans for Turkey’s IDEF defense expo?

ANKARA, Turkey — China is expected to make a significant showing at Turkey’s biennial defense conference this month, according to an official organizer.

Seventy-four Chinese firms are scheduled to attend the International Defence Industry Fair, or IDEF, which is taking place July 25-28 in Istanbul. Meanwhile, five American businesses are signed up.

“There will be hundreds of participants, including high-level official delegations from across the world,” the official said.

“The Chinese will be coming mainly with a view to buying Turkish companies suitable for their longer-term targets,” Ozgur Eksi, who leads the media outlet TurDef, told Defense News.

“After acquisitions, they will bring in their technology, enjoy low production costs in Turkey, produce NATO-standard systems and target NATO system-using markets,” Eksi said. “Those will be ‘made in NATO’ systems heading for countries using ‘made in NATO’ systems.”

According to Eugene Kogan, a security and defense analyst based in Tbilisi, Georgia, Chinese businesses are keen to buy Turkish companies in order to sell to NATO member countries.

“I foresee cooperation between China and Turkey in Africa, where the two countries are trying their best to expel foreign competitors. I think that at the moment, China is interested in buying the second-tier Turkish defense companies where the so-called Western know-how can be combined with Chinese,” Kogan said.

A Chinese diplomat in Ankara declined to comment for this story.

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