President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday on the first leg of his three-nation Gulf tour aimed at attracting foreign investment to strengthen Turkey’s economy.
The Turkish President will meet King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah before leaving for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar later this week.
Before leaving for the Gulf visit, Erdogan said: “During our visits, our primary agenda will be joint investment and commercial activities with these countries in the coming period.”
The Turkish President said that bilateral trade with the Gulf countries has increased from $1.6 billion to nearly $22 billion in the last 20 years. AFP informed of.
“With the holding of business forums, we will seek ways to further increase this figure,” Erdogan said.
This is his second visit to Saudi Arabia after the recent reconciliation. Relations between the two countries were strained by the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate.
Turkey angered Saudi Arabia at the time by vigorously pursuing the matter, launching an investigation and briefing the international media on the gruesome details of the murder.
But with ties improving, Erdogan visited Saudi Arabia in April 2022 and Prince Mohammed visited Turkey in June last year.
Erdogan’s new Saudi trip comes as Turkey grapples with currency devaluation and rising inflation that has hurt its economy.
A senior Saudi official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the two countries would sign several agreements during Erdogan’s visit as Ankara looks to non-Western partners for financial aid, as he declined to speak to the press. Not authorized for
Erdogan’s Gulf tour will be followed by a trip to northern Cyprus, which Turkey invaded and annexed in 1974, and comes after his re-election in May for another five-year term.
Sinem Cengiz, a researcher at Qatar University, said, “Erdogan’s Gulf visit after important elections in Turkey shows the importance of Gulf countries in Turkey’s foreign policy agenda.” AFP,
“Gulf countries’ growing interest in investing in various sectors is an incentive for Turkey, which is trying to increase exports to help ease its economic problems,” said the Gulf-Turkey relations expert.
