The UAE and Turkey are expected to sign new agreements and “renew previous commitments” during the upcoming visit of the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to the UAE in February, a senior Turkish official said.
“Our President’s visit to the UAE is currently confirmed and the preparations are ongoing. This is going to be a testament to the improved ties between our countries,” Mustafa Sentop, Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, told the Emirates News Agency (WAM) in an exclusive interview on Friday.
“We believe that the leaders of Turkey and the UAE standing next to each other will deliver an important message on its own,” he added. “There are mutual efforts to conclude new agreements and to renew previous commitments to cover a wider range in our current cooperation.”
The Speaker of the Turkish Parliament had met on Thursday with Saqr Ghobash, his Emirati counterpart, the Speaker of the Federal National Council (FNC), in Abu Dhabi. They discussed developing parliamentary relations between the two countries.
Sentop’s visit comes two months after Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, had met with Erdogan in Ankara.
During the visit, the UAE announced setting up a US$10 billion investment fund in Turkey.
“Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed’s visit to Turkey was an important step in carrying forward our relationship to a new level. Cooperation agreements were signed on important matters,” Sentop said.
“Our goal is to [strengthen] the cooperation between Turkey and the UAE in the fields of climate change, energy, water and food security, in addition to health, agriculture, logistics, infrastructure, finance and tourism”.
The UAE is Turkey’s top trading partner among the GCC countries; the bilateral trade between the two countries in 2020 had reached US$8 billion. The Turkish official said the trade in the first 10 months of 2021 had amounted to US$6.4 billion.
“The UAE is also an important investor in Turkey and ranks second among the GCC countries,” he explained, adding that the country has “significant investments” in tourism, banking as well as ports and retail.
In an interview with Bloomberg last week, UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Dr. Thani Al Zeyoudi, said his country is looking to double or triple its trade volume with Turkey by capitalising on its logistical ties with the rest of the world.
Sentop believes that the current volume of bilateral trade is “still far from reflecting our potential.”
However, he revealed that, “to date,” Turkish contractors have undertaken 141 projects worth US$13 billion in the UAE.
“Our companies have been investing in and are part of the UAE market for over 10 years. Turkish investments [in the UAE] amount to US$720 million,” Sentop said.
“In the coming years, we wish to increase our investment share in the UAE in the fields of logistics, finance, renewable energy and infrastructure.”
The latest agreement between the two countries was signed on Wednesday, January 19, 2022. The Turkish and Emirati central banks had agreed on a nearly US$5 billion swap deal in local currencies.