"Turkey Qatari defense ties go back to before the blockade and continue to develop because Qatar has something to learn from Turkey's military experience," Ryan Bohl, senior Middle East and North Africa analyst at RANE, risk intelligence, told me. "Turkey continues to see Qatar as an important regional ally and, most importantly, a key means of economic support for their struggling economy back home."

"Defense drills make a good deal of sense on the backdrop of their overall relations," Bohl said.

Read the full Forbes article by Paul Iddon here.