A joint naval drill by Special Naval Forces of Pakistan and Turkey, ‘AYYILDIZ-2019’ was successfully completed in Karachi yesterday. Pakistan Navy Special Services Group (SSGN) and Turkish Navy Special Forces, Su Alti Taarruz (SAT) completed the 12 days annual exercise of Ayyildiz series for the 12th time this year.
Both the forces conduct a bilateral exercise to learn from each other’s experiences and further refine their skill set for optimum functionality. During the session, multiple situations were practiced including Anti-Terrorism Ops, Rescue and Hostage Ops, Counterterrorism in Maritime domain and Intelligence-based operations. Turkish Navy is likewise a standard member of AMAN series of Multinational Maritime Exercises composed biennially by Pakistan Navy since 2007. Experiences gained from these joint ventures have been very valuable for the participants as they provide opportunities to fine-tune their technicalities.
Pakistan and Turkey are considered as very strong allies. In recent years, over 60 defense cooperation agreements have been signed between the two countries and apart from the military sector, the countries also have cohesive diplomatic relations.
Besides strong propaganda, Turkey stood by Pakistan in FATF matter and was the only country to vote in favor of Pakistan when we were put on a ‘grey list’. Later, Turkey also supported Pakistan to avoid the ‘blacklist’ of FATF.
Turkey had also strongly condemned the Indian insurgency in Pakistani earlier this year in February and mentioned that any assault made on Pakistan would be considered as an assault on Turkey.
Pakistan will also join a bilateral military exercise in Molkino, Russia in October this year. Russain Defense Minister confirmed the arrangement of the exercise and said in a statement that, “The joint exercise will be held with the aim of exchanging experience between military personnel, developing and strengthening military-technical cooperation between the two countries,”.
