Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa, has announced that Nigeria and Türkiye have agreed on the immediate deployment of 200 Nigerian Special Forces personnel to Türkiye for training.
Musa made this known in an interview on the sidelines of the 5th Antalya Diplomacy Forum (ADF2026) in Antalya on Saturday, after meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Yasar Guler.
The three-day forum, themed “Mapping Tomorrow, Managing Uncertainties,” began on Friday and has drawn world leaders, ministers and diplomats.
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He stated that under the agreement, Türkiye has allocated training slots for the 200 Nigerian Special Forces, who will be deployed as soon as he returns to Nigeria.
“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.
“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 said.
Equipment Production
The Minister also disclosed that Nigeria and Türkiye had both agreed on joint defence equipment production and the transfer of military technology.
Musa said that Nigeria and Türkiye had come a long way, working together over the years, adding that, “since 1960 Türkiye has been like family to Nigeria.”
According to him, Türkiye has a lot of defence experience from which Nigeria could learn through shared experiences.
“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.
“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,” he said.
The Minister noted that while Nigeria had been fighting asymmetric warfare against insurgency for about 17 years, Türkiye has had a similar experience of fighting against terrorism for 40 years.
“Because of that, we will move into training, production and improving on our defence, industrial production, and exchange of officers and soldiers,” he added.
NAN