Turkey’s President Erdogan In Saudi Arabia On Official Visit

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Saudi Arabia on Thursday for his first visit to the Kingdom since 2017.

Erdogan arrived at at King Abdulaziz International airport in Jeddah and was received by Governor of Makkah region Prince Khalid Al-Faisal, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported,

“All aspects of the relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia will be reviewed, and steps aimed at enhancing the cooperation between the two countries will be discussed at the talks to be held as part of the visit. Besides bilateral relations, views on regional and international matters will be exchanged,” a Turkish statement said.

In addition to Saudi Arabia, Erdogan has also been working to mend his ties with other countries in the region as he faces domestic challenges at home brought on by an economy grappling with a currency crash and soaring inflation.

“My visit reflects our joint will to start a new era of cooperation as the two brotherly countries. We will be making efforts in order to start a new era of enhanced relations between our two countries in all respects including politics, military, economy and culture,” Erdogan said.

“Saudi Arabia holds a special place for Turkey in terms of trade and investments as well as the large-scale projects implemented by our contractors.

“The total value of the projects our contractors have undertaken in Saudi Arabia reaches $24 billion.

“The complementary nature of our economies is the primary factor that attracts Saudi investors to the dynamic environment in Turkey,” Erdogan added.

“I see and believe that it is in our joint interest to boost our cooperation with Saudi Arabia in such areas as healthcare, energy, food security, agricultural technologies, defense industry and finance. It seems that we have significant potential particularly in renewable and green energy. We will hopefully discuss and thoroughly evaluate these issues.”