Turkey will train 200 Nigerian special forces personnel as part of efforts to strengthen the country’s defence capacity.
Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, Christopher Musa, said the initiative forms part of bilateral security agreements reached with his Turkish counterpart, Yasar Guler.
Musa disclosed this while attending the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey on Saturday.
“We have a special forces training agreement. Türkiye has agreed to give us 200 special forces training, so as soon as I return, we are sending them here for training,” he said.
“We will continue to do a lot. There will be exercises. The first exercise is coming up later in the year. So, in so many areas of defence, we are going to work together.”
He added that both countries have also agreed to collaborate on joint production of defence equipment and the transfer of military technology.
“I’ve had a meeting with the Turkish Minister of Defence, where we shared a lot of ideas on how to improve on our relationship, defence-wise,” he said.
“Türkiye has improved dramatically with regard to the production of military hardware.
“Nigeria is still developing, and we have agreed that we are going to partner together so that we have a co-production of some of these items.”
Musa noted that the partnership is also driven by the shared challenge of tackling terrorism.
“Because of that, we will move into training, production and improving on our defence, industrial production, and exchange of officers and soldiers,” he added.
Turkey has increasingly positioned itself as a key partner in Nigeria’s fight against terrorism, with both countries strengthening defence cooperation through multiple agreements signed earlier this year.