Gen. Christopher Musa (retd.), the Minister of Defense, has said that Nigeria and Türkiye have agreed to send 200 Nigerian Special Forces to Türkiye right away for training.
Musa said this in an interview at the 5th Antalya Diplomacy Forum (ADF2026) in Antalya, Turkey, on Saturday, after talking with his Turkish counterpart, Yasar Guler.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) says that world leaders, ministers, and diplomats are among those who are attending the three-day forum that started on Friday and is called “Mapping Tomorrow, Managing Uncertainties.”
The minister said that after the agreement, Türkiye set aside a training quota of 200 people from Nigeria’s Special Forces, who will be sent back to Nigeria right away.
“We have a deal to train Special Forces. Turkey has agreed to send us 200 Special Forces trainees, so as soon as I get back, we will send them here to train.
“We will keep doing a lot.” There will be activities. Later this year, the first exercise will happen. He said, “So, in so many areas of defense, we are going to work together.”
The minister also said that Nigeria and Türkiye had agreed to work together to make defense equipment and share military technology.
Musa said that Nigeria and Türkiye had come a long way by working together over the years. He also said, “Since 1960, Türkiye has been like family to Nigeria.”
He says that Türkiye has a lot of experience in defense that Nigeria could learn from by sharing its own experiences.
“I met with the Turkish Minister of Defense and we talked about a lot of ways to make our defense relationship better.
“Türkiye has made huge strides in making military equipment.
He said, “Nigeria is still developing, and we have agreed to work together so that we can co-produce some of these items.”
The minister said that Nigeria has been fighting insurgency in an unbalanced way for about 17 years, but Türkiye has been fighting terrorism in a similar way for 40 years.
He went on to say, “Because of that, we will start training, making things, and improving our defense, industrial production, and the exchange of officers and soldiers.”
NAN says that the yearly event also had panel discussions and sessions on a wide range of topics that were influenced by current global defense and security, political, economic, environmental, and technological trends.
The forum had participants from around 150 countries, including 5,000 decision-makers, 20 heads of state and government, 40 foreign ministers, 60 invited foreign media, and diplomats, among others.
