Saudi GAMI Acting Governor Meets SSB’s Görgün at SAMI RUKN Supplier Day in Istanbul
Bandar bin Ibrahim Al-Khorayef, Saudi Arabia’s minister of state, cabinet member and acting governor of the General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI), met Türkiye’s defence industry chief, Prof. Haluk Görgün, on the sidelines of the first RUKN Supplier Day in Istanbul. The two discussed ways to expand industrial and technical partnerships and to draw on each side’s expertise. No new contract or signed agreement was announced.
Al-Khorayef reported the meeting on his official account. The Saudi outlet SABQ carried the same account of the talks. The gathering was organised in Istanbul on 11–12 November 2026 by the RUKN local-content programme of Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI), a Public Investment Fund company. SAMI said it had concluded the programme’s first supplier day; the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported the conclusion under the same headline.
How the supplier day was organised
According to SAMI, RUKN organised the event with support from Türkiye’s Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK), the Saudi–Turkish Business Council and SAHA Istanbul. The company said more than 100 firms took part through leading Turkish industrial groups and their supply chains. Participants included ASELSAN, HAVELSAN, ROKETSAN and FNSS, among others.
Over the two days, representatives of SAMI Advanced Electronics, SAMI Ammunition, SAMI Alsalam Aerospace, SAMI Land and SAMI Autonomous held workshops, round tables and company-to-company meetings to review supplier capabilities against 95 targeted systems and components. The work covered aerospace sustainment, land systems, autonomous and unmanned systems, ammunition, defence electronics and advanced manufacturing.
The dates and venue overlap the Türkiye–Saudi Arabia Defence Industry Days already covered in earlier reporting. This article focuses on the official GAMI–SSB meeting and on SAMI’s statement closing the first RUKN Supplier Day, rather than on earlier remarks at the same Istanbul talks.
What Al-Khorayef said
According to SABQ, Al-Khorayef told the gathering that Saudi Arabia, with leadership support, continues to build national industrial capacity and to attract serious investment into the military industries, in line with Vision 2030’s goal of localising more than 50 percent of military spending by 2030. He pointed to existing defence-industry cooperation and to both countries’ membership of the G20, and said strategic partnerships between Saudi and Turkish companies are a foundation for knowledge and technology transfer, workforce development, and local manufacturing and maintenance.
He said he hoped those ties would translate into long-term investment and partnerships that build capacity inside the Kingdom, serve the domestic market and open a path to wider markets. He also highlighted RUKN’s role in developing suppliers, identifying priority value chains and widening the participation of local manufacturers in projects.
In its report on the visit, SABQ said the localisation rate of military spending had risen from 4 percent in 2018 to 27.30 percent by the end of 2025, with local content in military spending at 40.91 percent. Those figures were presented as background on the sector’s current position, not as the terms of a new agreement.
SAMI’s statement and the RUKN framework
SAMI Group chief executive Eng. Thamer bin Mohammed Al-Muhid said in the company’s statement that relations between Saudi Arabia and Türkiye have laid foundations for industrial cooperation. Through RUKN, he said, the aim is not only to sign contracts but to build lasting partnerships that strengthen local manufacturing, develop Saudi suppliers, and enable technology and knowledge transfer, in line with Vision 2030.
RUKN was launched by Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, who chairs SAMI’s board, at the 2026 World Defense Show. The programme is designed to identify critical value chains and strategic dependencies, raise local production, embed local content in procurement, and reduce reliance on external suppliers through a more integrated national production network.
Baykar visit and other sideline talks
SABQ and Ajel reported that Al-Khorayef also toured the accompanying exhibition with Görgün and, on the sidelines of the same visit, went to Baykar, the Turkish company specialising in unmanned aerial systems, to explore industrial and technical cooperation. No contract value, quantity or signing was announced in connection with that visit.
He also met executives from a number of Turkish companies to discuss experience-sharing and the localisation of advanced technologies. Senior attendees at the supplier day included Istanbul Governor Davut Gül, Turkish Deputy Minister of Industry and Technology Dr Çetin Ali Dönmez, Hashim Songur, the Turkish chair of the Turkish–Saudi Business Council, SAMI chief executive Al-Muhid, and Murat İkinci, vice-chairman of SAHA Istanbul.
None of the official or press accounts published with the event described a newly signed procurement contract, joint-production agreement or memorandum of understanding. The talks were presented as an exercise in matching supply chains, examining localisation opportunities and exploring longer-term industrial partnerships.
