ANKARA

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Elon Musk, the founder of electric carmaker Tesla and space exploration company SpaceX, held a video call on Thursday and spoke on a range of issues including digital economy and Turkey's National Space Program.

According to Turkey’s Communications Directorate, cooperation between the public, private sector institutions in Turkey and Musk's companies in different fields, especially satellite and space technologies, were discussed.

The talk also focused on electric vehicles, long-term investments, and steps to improve the existing cooperation.

Besides joint steps that can be taken regarding lithium batteries of Turkey’s first domestic electric vehicle TOGG, the process of launching Turkey’s Turksat 5B communications satellite into orbit was also discussed. Turkey launched the Turksat 5-A satellite into space through SpaceX in January.

Musk, the richest man in the world, was recently named Person of the Year 2021 by Time magazine.

*Writing by Seda Sevencan