Crown prince’s Turkey visit to cement ties between regional heavyweights

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Agencies)

JEDDAH/RIYADH: The talks between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday in Turkey will focus on key bilateral and regional issues with special reference to the turmoil in the Middle East.
“Several agreements are expected to be signed during the two-day visit of the crown prince to Ankara,” Turkish Ambassador Yunus Demirer told Arab News on Wednesday.
“The agreements, to be endorsed by the Kingdom and Turkey, are in the fields of manpower cooperation, science, culture and cooperation among mass communication channels like radio and television,” said Demirer.
This is the first visit of the crown prince, or for that matter any high-ranking Saudi official to Turkey after a failed military coup that shook the NATO member state in July this year.
He said that the crown prince will arrive in Ankara on Thursday afternoon. The royal visit, according to the Demirer, is significant keeping in view the close relations between the two countries in recent years “on issues like the ongoing wars and strife in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq, along with Iran’s role in the region’s conflicts and cooperation in combating terrorism.”
Sinem Cengiz, a leading Turkish political analyst, described the visit as “highly significant and extremely timely.”
“This visit is being seen in Turkey by the government and the Turkish people as Saudi Arabia’s big endorsement of Ankara at a critical time,” Cengiz told Arab News from Ankara.
“Saudi Arabia and Turkey are two important countries in the Middle East. They are two crucial heavyweights. The cooperation between them is not limited to bilateral or economic ties, but includes cooperation in the fight against terrorism, especially in the Syrian context. This has been the case for the last five years.”
She pointed out that Moody’s, the credit ratings agency, had downgraded Turkey’s sovereign credit rating, but Gulf businesses had nonetheless continued to invest in Turkey.
“The message that Saudi Arabia is sending with this visit is that it has full faith in the Turkish economy regardless of the negative ratings. I am sure more investment opportunities will be discussed during the visit which could take Saudi-Turkish business ties to a new level,” she said.
She said Turkey still believed that Assad should not play a part in Syria’s future. “So there is no change in Turkish foreign policy,” she said. “But, of course, after the failed coup attempt, Turkey is going through an important transition in many areas, particularly its foreign policy.”
The Turkish operation against terrorists inside Syria that took place a month ago, she said, should be looked at in the context of Turkey’s current rapprochement with Russia.
Her views were echoed by Dr. M. Mustafa Goksu, senior adviser at the Riyadh-based Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey. “The Turkish side gives great importance to this visit, and arrangements have been made with great detail and accuracy,” he said, adding that the Kingdom’s businessmen are among the biggest commercial partners of Turkey in the region.
About 700 Saudi companies have invested in Turkey, with total investments amounting to more than $6 billion.