Belgian Queen Mathilde Tours Turkey's Baykar Defence Facility
Belgium's Queen Mathilde toured the facilities of Turkish drone manufacturer Baykar as part of her official visit to Türkiye. The agenda highlighted defence-industry cooperation and technology exchange between the two countries.
As part of her ongoing visit to Türkiye alongside King Philippe of Belgium, Queen Mathilde toured Baykar's production facilities outside Istanbul. According to TRT Haber, the queen inspected manufacturing lines and the company's drone testing areas.
Baykar executives briefed the delegation on the company's export volumes, research-and-development capacity and international partnerships. Officials said defence-industry dialogue between Türkiye and Belgium has strengthened recently, with potential joint projects identified between firms from both countries.
The official readout said the Belgian delegation showed interest in Türkiye's technological capacity in unmanned systems. The visit carries symbolic weight for Türkiye's wider strategy of expanding defence exports into Europe, a market the country is targeting as it scales up its drone industry.
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