President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressed on Wednesday openness to potential collaboration with Elon Musk on technology if opportunities for cooperation in that field arise, highlighting what he said was a “friendly conversation” with the billionaire last year in the Turkish House (Türkevi).
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named Musk for a role aimed at creating a more efficient government, handing even more influence to the world’s richest man who donated millions of dollars to help Trump get elected.
“Musk supported Trump during this election, but what matters to us is that he is a businessperson actively working in the fields of space and technology,” Erdoğan told reporters on a return flight from Baku.
“He is someone who follows technology closely and has taken some serious steps,” he added.
“Technology isn’t a field you can advance on your own, you absolutely need some cooperation. In the event cooperation opportunities arise in this field, steps can be taken with Musk,” Erdoğan was cited as saying.
Erdoğan further recalled that he met with Musk last year in New York, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, where he introduced his son to the Turkish president.
“We had a friendly conversation at the Türkevi. Türkiye’s technological breakthroughs are drawing the world’s attention,” he said.
He, at the time, invited Musk to establish a Tesla factory in Türkiye.
Tesla is already one of the top electric brands in the country when considering sales, which show fluctuations from month to month but gaining significant attraction among Turkish customers.
It is unclear whether the U.S.-based carmaker would consider any move in the future, although in past days it put on display its Cybertruck model in a mall in Istanbul.
Türkiye is already cooperating with SpaceX, which successfully launched Türkiye’s first indigenous communications satellite, Türksat 6A into orbit earlier this year.
