Italy-Türkiye Military Drone Cooperation and its Implications for Mediterranean Politics

Italy – Türkiye bilateral relations are characterised by pragmatic yet asymmetrical cooperation, to Türkiye’s advantage. While Italy relies on Türkiye to curb migration and safeguard its energy interests, Ankara leverages the relationship to expand its influence in the Mediterranean, NATO, and the EU. This Brief argues that this asymmetry is now amplified by the recent compartmentalized Leonardo – Baykar military drone partnership. Italy is relying on Turkish military technology for its most important weapons-system programme, the GCAP sixth-generation aircraft. This has profound implications for Italy – Türkiye bilateral relations, Mediterranean politics, and broader international security. Despite increased cooperation, Libya, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Albania remain areas where Italy-Türkiye overlapping interests could spark confrontation. In such a scenario, the compartmentalised and asymmetric drone partnership risks fostering distrust, which may deepen geopolitical fault lines across the Mediterranean. Moreover, through participation in GCAP, Türkiye could further extend its influence within NATO and the broader European security architecture, at a time when this is being reshaped to account for a reduced US role and greater European strategic autonomy. This Brief provides policy recommendations to rebalance a relationship that nonetheless serves common economic and strategic interests and can play a positive role in stabilising the Mediterranean region.