Saudi Arabia and Türkiye solidified their increasingly close diplomatic and trade relations this week, with a slew of commitments to coordinate on defense and investment.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, his first trip to the kingdom in more than two years.
The two have steadily rebuilt ties that had reached a low ebb in 2017 to 2020, when Ankara sided with Qatar in a regional dispute; the regional rift is now between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi and Türkiye again appears to have picked a side.
There was no announcement on a rumored security pact between Ankara and Riyadh, although a joint statement said they would “strengthen and develop their defense relations.” They also agreed to develop a $2 billion solar project in Türkiye — likely to be built by Saudi sovereign wealth fund-backed ACWA Power — and set a goal of nearly doubling the value of bilateral trade to $10 billion over the medium term.
— Matthew Martin