Rwanda’s Chief of Defence Staff General Mubarakh Muganga held a face-to-face bilateral meeting with Turkey’s Chief of the General Staff General Selçuk Bayraktaroğlu in Istanbul this week, on the sidelines of SAHA Expo 2026, one of the largest defence and aerospace trade fairs in the world.
The meeting, confirmed by the Turkish Embassy in Kigali, marks another step in a military relationship that has been quietly but steadily growing for over a decade.
The encounter took place at the Istanbul Expo Centre, where SAHA 2026 is running from May 5 to 9 and has brought together more than 1,700 exhibitors from over 120 countries, spanning 100,000 square metres of exhibition space.
The fair is not a routine industry event, it has attracted over 25 foreign ministers and numerous high-ranking military officials, with 203 product launch ceremonies and 164 signing ceremonies planned during the week.
The bilateral nature of the Muganga-Bayraktaroğlu meeting sets it apart from a courtesy visit. Turkey’s Chief of the General Staff oversees the country’s entire military apparatus, and a direct sit-down at this level typically precedes or accompanies concrete negotiations on procurement, training, or security cooperation frameworks.
Rwandan forces deployed to Mozambique were observed operating Otokar Cobra II platforms, Turkish-built vehicles performing in an active operational environment.
Rwanda’s defence industry, though small, has been growing, with the Rwanda Engineering and Manufacturing Corporation (REMCO) debuting locally manufactured weapons, assault rifles, pistols, and sniper rifles at the 2025 International Security and Counter-Terrorism Africa summit.
Kigali is actively trying to reduce dependence on foreign suppliers. Turkey, which has made its own leap from arms importer to major exporter over the past decade, is a natural partner for a country navigating that same transition.
African countries have been among the main buyers of Turkish UAVs, including the Bayraktar TB2, with nations across North, West, and East Africa all making purchases in recent years.
The RDF is currently one of Africa’s most operationally active militaries — deployed in Mozambique and the Central African Republic, and General Muganga, a four-star general with over 30 years of service, is its most senior voice.
His presence in Istanbul at a forum of this scale, meeting Turkey’s top general, reflects Kigali’s deliberate effort to diversify and deepen its defence partnerships at the highest levels.
It also reflects Rwanda’s wider foreign policy posture: engaged, non-aligned in the traditional sense, and very intentional about who sits across the table.
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