He held a closed-door, one-on-one meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at Ankara Airport, attended by Vice‑President Cevdet Yılmaz, Chief of the Turkish General Staff General Selçuk Bayraktaroğlu, and National Intelligence Organization Director İbrahim Kalın.
Munir’s Ankara meetings and ISPR framing
Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Forces, arrived in Türkiye on 13 July 2026 for a two‑day official visit focused on bilateral defence cooperation and regional security. According to a statement issued by Pakistan’s Inter‑Services Public Relations (ISPR), Munir called on President Erdoğan and Minister of National Defence Yaşar Güler to “discuss matters of mutual interest and regional security.” The military described the talks as reflecting a shared vision to deepen the strategic partnership “in an evolving geopolitical environment.”
High‑level military engagement: Gen. Bayraktaroğlu and the Distinguished Service Medal
Munir held separate talks with Chief of the Turkish General Staff General Selçuk Bayraktaroğlu on regional security and professional military matters. Bayraktaroğlu awarded Munir the Distinguished Service Medal in recognition of his contribution to bilateral military cooperation. Munir was received on arrival with a guard of honour presented by a tri‑services contingent.
Naval construction and the ASFAT–MILGEM corvette program
The visit underscored long‑running defence-industrial ties, particularly naval construction under a 2018 agreement in which ASFAT is building four MILGEM corvettes for the Pakistan Navy. Under that arrangement two corvettes are being built in Istanbul and two at Karachi Shipyard under a technology‑transfer arrangement. The two navies already hold regular joint exercises and have expanded cooperation into aerospace and unmanned systems, and officials from both sides have explored a draft trilateral defence agreement that would involve Saudi Arabia and tie the relationship into broader Gulf security cooperation.
Munir’s recent diplomatic footprint: Iran, Switzerland, and NATO’s Ankara summit
The Ankara trip came after a run of high‑level exchanges and regional diplomacy. Munir has made repeated trips to Iran as Islamabad mediated between Tehran and Washington and joined high‑level US–Iran negotiations in Switzerland in June. A week before travelling to Ankara, he attended the funeral of Iran’s late supreme leader alongside Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The visit also followed Türkiye’s hosting of the 2026 NATO Summit in Ankara days earlier, where allies signed defence commitments valued at more than $100 billion and Turkey featured prominently in the alliance’s push to expand industrial capacity.
What this means for the Pakistan Navy, ASFAT, and Gulf partners (Saudi Arabia)
- Pakistan Navy: The navy will sustain joint exercises and training with its Turkish counterpart and continue to receive platform deliveries and technology transfer through the MILGEM corvette program, supporting naval modernization efforts described in the visit.
- ASFAT and Turkish defence industry: ASFAT’s role building corvettes and the technology‑transfer arrangement at Karachi Shipyard positions Turkish industry as a supplier of NATO‑standard solutions accessible to Pakistan and as a partner for potential next‑generation programs.
- Saudi Arabia and Gulf partners: Exploration of a draft trilateral defence agreement involving Saudi Arabia would connect the Ankara‑Islamabad relationship to wider Gulf security cooperation, aligning the two countries’ military ties with broader regional security consultations that Pakistan is coordinating with Türkiye, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
Munir’s stop at the Turkish Land Forces headquarters to meet General Metin Tokel again — following Tokel’s June visit to Rawalpindi — signals continued chief‑level exchanges as the practical mechanism to carry forward both operational cooperation and industrial projects. He also laid a wreath at Anıtkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a ceremonial element that accompanied the visit’s substantive defence and diplomatic agenda.
The visit, arriving in the wake of the NATO summit and amid Pakistan’s wider diplomatic engagements in Iran and Switzerland, reinforces a deliberate effort by Islamabad to keep Türkiye at the centre of its defence partnerships: sustaining exercises and training, drawing on Turkish industry for technology transfer and NATO‑standard platforms, and positioning both sides for broader cooperation that could reach into Gulf security arrangements and next‑generation programs.
Original reporting: Quwa — Field Marshal Asim Munir Visits Türkiye for Defence Talks as Ankara–Islamabad Ties Deepen
