The first agreement is about “improving the capabilities of the Libyan air force thanks to Turkish expertise in this field.” The second agreement “includes several implementation contracts related to the security agreement signed in 2019” by Ankara and the former Tripoli government.
Libya and Turkey signed two military deals today that specifically provide for the modernization of the Libyan air force by Ankara, three weeks after an agreement was reached to explore for hydrocarbons in Libyan waters, according to the Tripoli government.
These agreements were signed in Istanbul by Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and Tripoli Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeiba, who is visiting Turkey to attend a defense exhibition.
According to a press release from the Dbeiba government, the first agreement is about “improving the capabilities of the Libyan air force thanks to Turkish expertise in this field.”
The second agreement “includes several implementing agreements related to the security agreement signed in 2019” by Ankara and the former Tripoli government, at the same time as a controversial agreement on the demarcation of maritime zones, which had drawn the ire of the European Union, Agence France-Presse reports.
In exchange for the 2019 bilateral agreements, Turkey had helped the Tripoli government repel an offensive in June 2020 by the forces of eastern Libyan strongman Marshal Khalifa Haftar to capture the western Libyan capital of Tripoli, with the country plagued by power struggles between its eastern and western sides.
Ankara had sent military advisers and drones to Libya, which had allowed a series of defeats at the gates of Tripoli for the forces of Marshal Haftar, who had the support of Russia and Ankara’s rivals in the region, namely the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
Since March, two governments have been vying for power in Libya, which has been plunged into chaos since the uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011.
In early October, Libya and Turkey signed an agreement to explore for hydrocarbons in Libyan waters, an agreement denounced by Greece and Egypt.
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