diplomacy
Years of enmity: Turkey and the Emirates are drawing closer together
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey, received the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Sajid al-Nahjan in Ankara. Photo: Burhan Ozbilici / AP / dpa / archive
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For a long time there was a thick air between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. A meeting in Ankara is now supposed to improve relations.
After years of poor relations between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Sajid al-Nahjan, has visited Ankara.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received the de facto ruler of the Emirates in Ankara on Wednesday.
The Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported in the evening that the United Arab Emirates had provided a fund of ten billion US dollars for investments in Turkey. In addition, cooperation agreements were signed for the areas of trade, energy and the environment.
Above all, Turkey should expect economic benefits from the visit. According to various media reports, the Emirates are interested in investing in Turkey.
This is likely to come in handy for Turkey, especially against the backdrop of a worsening economic and currency crisis. The last time inflation was almost 20 percent, the local currency, the lira, has lost around 40 percent of its value this year.
Turkey, which is partially isolated in terms of foreign policy, is currently trying to expand its bilateral relations with, for example, Arab states. A year ago it was different: The Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu attacked the Emirates sharply at the time, blaming the country for the destabilization in Libya. In turn, the UAE – along with Cyprus, Greece, Egypt and France – sharply criticized Turkey’s Mediterranean policy.