Türkiye-UK Trade Talks Expand Into Wider Economic Partnership
By Bosphorus News Economy Desk
Türkiye and the United Kingdom have pushed their upgraded free trade talks into a broader economic channel, with Ankara saying the latest round covered investment, defence industry cooperation and joint projects in third countries alongside the modernization of the bilateral trade pact.
Trade Minister Ömer Bolat hosted UK Minister of State for Trade Policy Chris Bryant at Türkiye's Trade Ministry on Wednesday, after the fifth round of negotiations on the upgraded Türkiye-UK Free Trade Agreement was held this week.
Bolat said bilateral trade reached $24 billion in 2025 and that Ankara wants the figure to rise to $40 billion after the modernized agreement is completed. The talks began in 2024, after the two countries decided to expand the post-Brexit continuity agreement into a broader framework covering services, investment and digital trade.
The United Kingdom's official summary of the fourth round, held in London in February, shows the scale of the negotiation. The agenda included trade in services, digital trade, investment, telecommunications, movement of businesspeople, legal services, goods trade, customs, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, intellectual property, public procurement, environment, labour, state-owned enterprises, competition and dispute settlement.
The agenda takes the negotiation beyond tariffs and goods trade, placing services, procurement, investment and business mobility closer to the centre of the file. London is trying to update one of its stronger post-Brexit trade links, while Ankara is placing the talks inside a larger economic channel that includes production, services, procurement, investment and access to third countries.
The defence-industry reference sits against an active Türkiye-UK defence track, including the Eurofighter Typhoon file's move from procurement toward training, sustainment and operational readiness. In March, the two sides signed a Eurofighter support agreement covering spares, support equipment, pilot and engineer training, simulators, electronic warfare capabilities and an initial technical support package for Türkiye's future Typhoon fleet.
The defence track does not sit inside the trade negotiation, but it shows how Ankara and London are building parallel economic and security channels. Bryant described the pace of the talks in January as "almost unheard of" in free trade agreement processes, after three rounds had been completed in six months.
The third-country language is relevant for Turkish contractors, defence firms, aviation suppliers and service companies because it links Türkiye's industrial base with the UK's finance, engineering and project-management capacity.
The pace of the talks now puts pressure on the text itself. For Türkiye, the value of an upgraded pact would rest on services, procurement, investment, industrial supply chains and business mobility provisions that give Turkish firms a deeper route into the UK market and UK-linked projects abroad.
Sources: Anadolu Agency, UK Department for Business and Trade, UK Parliament Hansard, Reuters, Bosphorus News review and reporting.