ABU DHABI — Turkey's President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in the UAE Monday for the first time in nearly a decade, to
revive relations that were long strained by regional disputes.
اضافة اعلان
Erdogan arrived in the capital Abu Dhabi,
where he was greeted by Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan,
reported the official WAM news agency.
Turkey and the oil-rich Emirates have backed
opposing sides in the
Libyan civil war and in a Gulf diplomatic crisis, and
they have sparred over issues such as gas exploration in the eastern
Mediterranean.
But those tensions eased after Sheikh
Mohammed, the ruler of the UAE, traveled to Ankara in November, the first
high-level visit to Turkey since 2012.
That trip "marked the beginning of a
new era in relations," Erdogan told journalists at Istanbul airport before
leaving for his two-day trip.
The Turkish president's visit to the
UAE,
meanwhile, is his first since 2013, when he was prime minister, and it is his
first as head of state.
"We are planning to take steps that
will bring relations back to the level they deserve," Erdogan said, adding
that Turkey–UAE dialogue and cooperation are "important to the peace and
stability in our region".
His trip comes as the Emirates face a
growing threat from
Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels, who have launched several
drone and missile attacks on the Gulf country, prompting stepped up UAE defense
cooperation with the US, and France.
To greet Erdogan on his trip, which will
take him to the Expo 2020 Dubai world fair on Tuesday, the host country was
lighting up the world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa, in the colors of the
Emirati and Turkish flags.
Following Sheikh Mohammed's visit in
November, the UAE announced a $10 billion fund for investments in Turkey, where
the economy has been reeling and inflation last month surged to a near 20-year
high.
'Peace and prosperity'
During this week's visit, Erdogan was
expected to sign 12 agreements with UAE partners, ranging from media and
communications to economic, and defense deals, Turkish media reports said.
His trip "will open a new, positive
page in bilateral relations,"
Anwar Gargash, adviser to the UAE president,
said in a tweet.
Erdogan said in a weekend op-ed in
the Emirati English-language daily Khaleej Times that "Turkey and the
UAE together can contribute to regional peace, stability and prosperity.
"As Turkey, we do not separate the
security and stability of the UAE and our other brothers in the Gulf region
from the security and stability of our own country.
"We believe wholeheartedly in the
importance of deepening our cooperation in this context in the future."
Turkey–UAE relations were particularly tense
after
Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, and Bahrain in 2017 cut all links with Qatar,
a close ally of Ankara. Those relations were restored in January 2021.
Erdogan has since last year sought to
improve ties with regional rivals in the face of increasing diplomatic
isolation that has caused foreign investment to dry up, particularly from the
West.
Last month he said he would visit Saudi
Arabia in February, the first trip to
Riyadh since relations soured over the
2018 murder of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi inside the kingdom's consulate in
Istanbul.
In the op-ed this weekend, Erdogan said
Turkey also wanted to advance cooperation with the UAE on several fronts,
including tackling "climate change, water, and food security.”
"I believe that both sides are eager to
set new targets for further investment and cooperation," he said,
predicting benefits "at the regional level".
Turkey–UAE trade topped 26.4 billion dirhams
($7.2 billion) in the first half of 2021. The UAE hopes to double or
triple trade volume with Turkey, which it sees as a route to new markets.
About 400 Emirati companies operate in
Turkey, the UAE's 11th largest trading partner, WAM said.
Abdul Khaleq Abdallah, a political science
professor in the UAE, tweeted on Sunday that the two countries should aim to
bolster a "strategic political partnership".
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