Niger and Turkey decide to expand their defense and energy cooperation

After Niger, a country in West Africa, urged Western military personnel to leave and terminated the mining contracts of numerous Western countries, Turkey and Niger decided to increase cooperation on energy, mining, intelligence, and defense.

On Wednesday, MIT intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, Defense Minister Yasar Guler, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan of Turkey paid a visit to Niamey, the capital of Niger.

The Turkish team also met with General Abdourahmane Tiani, the leader of Niger, who assumed office in July of last year following the overthrow of President Mohamed Bazoum by the military council he commands and the country’s shift in allegiance.

The junta ordered the United States to remove its military soldiers from the nation and drove out French troops. Additionally, it broke security agreements with the EU.

Two months have passed since Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Niger’s Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine met in Ankara, where the Turkish officials are currently on a visit.

Following their discussions on Wednesday, Fidan informed reporters that defense intelligence collaboration between Turkish and Nigeria authorities had improved.

Guler spoke about measures to strengthen defense and military training cooperation between Turkey and Niger, a spokesman from the Turkish defense ministry said on Thursday.

The energy ministry of Turkey announced on Wednesday that the two nations had inked a statement of intent to assist and motivate Turkish enterprises to develop the oil and natural gas resources in Niger.

Niger is the seventh-largest producer of uranium in the world and possesses the highest-grade uranium ores in Africa.

However, a Turkish diplomatic source stated that Ankara is not looking to purchase uranium from Niger for its first nuclear power station, which is being built in Akkuyu in Turkey’s Mediterranean area by Russia’s Rosatom.