20.06.2026 15:10
President Erdogan spoke at the "Delivery of the Offshore Patrol Vessel Cam Roman to the Romanian Naval Forces Command and the Commissioning and Flag-hoisting Ceremony of Turkish Naval Forces Command Platforms" at the Istanbul Shipyard Command. Erdogan said, "With the sales agreement we signed, Turkey has exported a warship to a NATO and European Union country for the first time in its history."
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke at the Istanbul Shipyard Command during the "Delivery of the Offshore Patrol Vessel Cam Roman to the Romanian Naval Forces Command and the Commissioning and Flag Hoisting Ceremony of Turkish Naval Forces Command Platforms."
"A NEW SYMBOL OF TURKIYE-ROMANIA FRIENDSHIP"
Highlights from President Erdogan's statements:
Esteemed commanders of our Turkish Armed Forces, valuable representatives of our defense industry and shipbuilding sector, distinguished guests, I greet you with my sincerest feelings of respect and affection. First of all, I would like to welcome to our country my esteemed friend Ilie Bolojan and the valuable members of the Romanian delegation, saying 'welcome, we are glad you came.'
Today, we have come together in Istanbul, the apple of the world's eye, to witness a new symbol of our maritime, engineering, and Turkiye-Romania friendship. In our ceremony held with the participation of the President, we are taking the Turkiye-Romania friendship, which has flowed through history, one step further.
"I BELIEVE IT WILL MAKE GREAT CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NATO ALLIANCE"
While delivering the Kam Roman corvette to the Romanian Naval Forces, we take pride in adding our Koçhisar offshore patrol vessel to the inventory. I wish these two sister ships, produced from the same dock and the product of the same engineering mind, to be auspicious and beneficial for our navies. I believe that both platforms will make significant contributions to our countries, the security of the Black Sea, the NATO alliance, and the peace of our region.
Right at the beginning of my speech, I want to emphasize one point. As you are aware, our world is experiencing one of the most profound changes since the Cold War. As conventional patterns break down, a new security paradigm that we call 'the difficult disrupts the game' is emerging. Every crisis we face reminds us once again that national security is too vital an issue to be entrusted to others. We are in the midst of a highly chaotic period where those who are not strong in the field cannot find a place at the table, and may even find themselves on the menu.
"WE HAVE REACHED LEVELS UNIMAGINABLE"
Turkiye is one of the countries that recognized and correctly interpreted the spirit of this new era at an early stage. Our defense industry formed the locomotive of our vision for a 'Great and Strong Turkiye.' On the path we set out with the goal of a fully independent Turkiye in defense, we have, thank God, made serious progress in 23 years. Despite encountering obstacles, restrictions, and hidden or open embargoes, we walked patiently towards our goal. We believed in ourselves and trusted our defense sector. As a result, we have reached levels that were unimaginable 23 years ago.
We are the 11th largest country in the world in defense exports. Last month, we achieved a historic success by exporting defense and aerospace products worth 996 million dollars. While our annual exports were 248 million dollars 23 years ago, today we realize this amount within just one week.
"WE ARE BUILDING OVER 50 WARSHIPS FOR ALLIED COUNTRIES"
Our defense industry is experiencing the most intense and productive days of our 103-year republic history. To date, we have exported over 140 naval platforms to different geographies. From the smallest boat to our UAV carrier ship TCG Anadolu, from destroyers to submarines, from our national aircraft carrier MUGEM, we can build all our surface and underwater platforms with national means and capabilities. We are one of the countries capable of building the most warships simultaneously. Currently, we are manufacturing over 50 warships, more than 15 of which are for export to friendly and allied countries.
We produce platforms of different types and classes, from the national aircraft carrier to air defense destroyers, from frigates to offshore patrol vessels, from landing ships to submarines, with a localization rate exceeding 80 percent. At the same time, we continue research, design, and production activities for our unmanned maritime vehicles that meet various needs. The total cost of the projects we are carrying out has reached 25 billion euros.
"OUR NAVY IS NOW A GLOBAL POWER"
This is also a source of pride for our country: Our navy, which had regional power projection capability before TCG Anadolu, has now gained global power projection capability. We are now further consolidating this capability. With our MUGEM project, we are rising to the position of the 7th country in the world capable of designing and producing its own aircraft carrier. The critical subsystems of all these platforms—radars, sonars, combat management systems, and software—are implemented by Turkish engineers.
Our ships are equipped with superior qualities compared to their counterparts, with national munitions and weapon systems. Thank God, we compete with ourselves in every field and strive to surpass the thresholds we set.
"OUR COOPERATION WITH ROMANIA WILL INCREASE FURTHER IN THE COMING PERIOD"
The painful security environment the world is in necessitates increased cooperation among friends and allies. With this understanding, we consider it our duty to share the opportunities and capabilities we have in the defense industry with friendly countries. I would like to emphasize that Romania holds special importance for us. The deep-rooted relations between Turkiye and Romania, matured with the spirit of alliance, are experiencing their historic peak. As you know, we elevated our relations to the level of strategic partnership in 2011. In 2024, we added an institutional dimension to our relations by establishing the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council. The ceremony we are holding here today is the embodiment of this strategic partnership at sea.
The Kam Roman corvette is the most concrete indicator of the will of two allied countries to jointly build the security of the Black Sea and our region. The security of the Black Sea is also an integral part of the Euro-Atlantic security architecture.
We value the cooperation developing between Turkiye, Romania, and Bulgaria in many areas, especially in combating naval mines. We hope this cooperation will increase further in the coming period.
"A FIRST IN TURKIYE'S HISTORY"
Another important point is this: The combat management system, search and fire control radars, sonar systems, and close-in defense weapons used on the ships we delivered and added to inventory today belong entirely to domestic and national companies. Our strong defense infrastructure, established under the leadership of Aselsan, Roketsan, Havelsan, Makine Kimya, and TÜBİTAK, enabled the production and delivery of these systems in a short time. With the sales agreement we signed with Romania, Turkiye has exported a warship to a NATO and European Union member country for the first time in its history. The success demonstrated by the ship during its testing, training, and operational preparation processes has once again proven the quality of Turkish naval platforms to the entire world.
TCG KOÇHISAR ALSO ENTERED SERVICE
Dear friends, we are also commissioning TCG Koçhisar today, which will add strength to the strength of our heroic Naval Forces.
This platform, which we built as part of our offshore patrol vessel project, will hopefully successfully carry out many missions, from intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to search and rescue, from combating piracy to maritime control and non-combat operations.
Turkey's goal is not to generate tension in our region; it is to strengthen peace, justice, tranquility, and stability. We are not after crisis, chaos, strife, or conflict with anyone. On the contrary, we advocate for strong cooperation based on mutual respect. We have no eye on anyone's land or sovereignty, and we never have. We have no eye on anyone's legitimate rights or interests, and we never have. Nevertheless, we will not allow anyone to covet our sovereignty, threaten our country, or harm our interests.
Our principle is very clear: We neither usurp rights nor allow our rights to be usurped. We also see contributing to the security needs of our friends and allies with our own national capabilities as a natural requirement of this understanding. Both ships we are seeing off to sea at this dock today are the embodiment of this vision, this belief, and this determination I have expressed.
With these thoughts, I wholeheartedly congratulate our Ministry of National Defense, our Presidency of Defense Industries, our Naval Forces Command, our Istanbul Shipyard Command, ASFAT, and all our companies, valuable engineers, technicians, and workers involved in the project.
I wish our Romanian friends success with the Kam Roman corvette, and I sincerely believe that our TCG Koçhisar will proudly wave our glorious flag in the Blue Homeland. May God keep our sailors' course clear and their fortune bright, I say."