Good afternoon. Mozambican generals will be hoping that yesterday’s meeting between President Daniel Chapo and representatives of the Turkish defence industry will yield tangible results in the form of weapons orders. No doubt the 13 Turkish arms companies in the delegation will be hoping the same. Ever since the insurgency in Cabo Delgado province began eight years ago, the Mozambican government has been trying to acquire more sophisticated weapons. It has repeatedly sought them from the European Union, which so far will only provide non-lethal equipment.
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Straightforward commercial arms deals are not an option for the government, as it lacks the money to pay upfront. What it needs is credit, and that means doing a deal with another government. This will surely be what the generals are looking for. Mozambican defence ministers have visited Turkey in the past in search of weapons, but the payment terms have been an obstacle. No such credit has been announced yet, but the Turkish officials would have surely known that that would be a prerequisite to selling any decent amount of weapons.
