ISLAMABAD – Turkey’s strategic relationship with Pakistan raises nuclearconcerns since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke openly inSeptember about Ankara’s ambitions to pursue its own nuclear weaponsprogramme, the Jerusalem Post said on Thursday.
Turkey already has the major elements for acquiring a nuclear capability –rich uranium deposits and the TR-1 and TR-2 Research Reactors maintained bythe Turkish Atomic Energy Authority – the daily said, adding that obtainingfuel remains as the greatest challenge. But Turkey’s first nuclear powerplant is now being built in partnership with Russia’s Rosatom.
Meanwhile, Turkey has over decades shown great interest in learning theformidable skills needed to purify uranium and turn it into plutonium, thetwo main fuels needed for a nuclear weapons programme, the Jerusalem Postsaid. Now, strengthening ties with Pakistan may allow Ankara to accessfurther knowledge it lacks, it said.
Turkey’s defence ties with Pakistan have been burgeoning, the JerusalemPost said. Two Pakistani naval ships this year participated in amultinational exercise in south Turkey, while in October the Pakistan Navycommissioned a 17,000-ton fleet tanker that it has built in collaborationwith a Turkish defence contractor. Islamabad has also agreed to buy 30Turkish-built combat helicopters in a deal struck in 2018. Ankara, on theother hand, is buying MFI-17 Super Mushshak aircraft from Pakistan.
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“The flourishing defence relationship – with its possible nuclearconnection – in turn takes place within a broader context,” The JerusalemPost said. Erdoğan has turned Turkey away from the West towards East, andhas now turned its face toward the Islamic world and the path of politicalIslam, it said.linklink
