Türkiye and Qatar have signed a mutual defence agreement following talks in Istanbul between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
The agreement was signed on 13 November during the 12th session of the countries’ Supreme Strategic Committee. The joint communiqué says it is intended to strengthen collective defence and establish a common stance in the event of an external armed attack targeting either country or both.
The two sides agreed to consult on security threats, regional and international security issues and defence policies. They also plan to expand cooperation through joint military exercises, defence-industry projects and personnel training exchanges.
The publicly released communiqué does not set out a detailed implementation mechanism or state an automatic obligation to intervene militarily.
The mutual defence agreement was one of five documents signed during the meeting. The other documents covered cooperation in education, consumer protection and market surveillance, as well as peace, reconciliation and conflict resolution.
The two countries also reiterated their goal of raising bilateral trade to 5 billion US dollars in the near future. The joint communiqué said Turkish contracting companies had undertaken 206 projects in Qatar with a combined value of 20.8 billion dollars.
