Turkey’s Erdogan Heads to Saudi Arabia to Ease Tensions

BEIRUT, Lebanon — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey arrived in Saudi Arabia for his first go to in almost 5 years on Thursday, capping his current efforts to enhance ties with the oil-rich kingdom at a time of deep financial misery at residence and to ease years of tensions over the killing of the dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul.

Mr. Erdogan landed within the Pink Sea port metropolis of Jeddah on Thursday night time, in line with Turkish state information media, and was anticipated to fulfill Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto Saudi ruler shortly after.

Talking to reporters on the airport earlier than departing for Saudi Arabia, Mr. Erdogan stated the journey was a part of Turkey’s efforts to advertise peace, dialogue and diplomacy within the area.

“My go to is the manifestation of our joint will to start out a brand new interval of cooperation as two brotherly international locations with historic, cultural and humane ties,” he stated.

Turkey this month granted a Saudi request to switch the trial within the homicide of Mr. Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia, a transfer that shut down the final case that rights activists hoped would additional make clear how the homicide happened. He was killed in 2018 by Saudi brokers contained in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, and the switch of the trial was most probably a prerequisite for Mr. Erdogan’s go to.

Sinan Ulgen, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe who research Turkish overseas coverage, stated the go to got here after others geared toward enhancing Turkey’s ties with regional international locations. Mr. Erdogan visited the United Arab Emirates, an in depth Saudi ally, in February, and acquired President Isaac Herzog of Israel in Turkey in March.

The go to to Saudi Arabia most probably got here later as a result of the problem of the Turkish trial of the suspects within the Khashoggi homicide case needed to be resolved first, Mr. Ulgen stated.

“It’s Erdogan bowing to strain by the Saudis for the sake of normalization of the connection,” he stated.

In keeping with a tentative schedule, Mr. Erdogan was anticipated to dine Thursday with King Salman, the Saudi monarch, and meet with Prince Mohammed, the king’s son and designated successor. However the Turkish information report on his arrival talked about solely a gathering with the king.

In his feedback earlier than leaving Turkey, Mr. Erdogan stated he aimed to extend cooperation with Saudi Arabia on points together with power, meals safety, protection and finance.

“We’ll focus on all these points,” he stated.

The go to additionally comes at a turbulent time for power markets due to the warfare in Ukraine. Turkey will get a lot of its gasoline from Russia, and Mr. Erdogan has stated that slicing Moscow off would harm Turkey’s economic system.

Rampant inflation is among the many Turkish authorities’s biggest home challenges, so Mr. Erdogan could also be within the function of Saudi Arabia, as one of many world’s largest oil exporters, in retaining world costs in test.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia have lengthy stood on reverse sides of main splits within the Center East, particularly after the Arab Spring uprisings that unfold throughout the area within the early 2010s. Turkey largely threw its weight behind the protest actions and Islamist teams, whereas Saudi Arabia sought to subvert them and actively supported a number of the area’s strongmen.

Relations additional deteriorated after 2018, when Saudi brokers killed and dismembered Mr. Khashoggi, a outstanding Saudi information media determine who had moved to america and turn out to be an outspoken critic of the Saudi crown prince, together with in columns for The Washington Submit.

The crime, whose sounds Turkish intelligence captured with bugs planted contained in the consulate, shocked the world, and Mr. Erdogan’s authorities trickled out gory particulars to maintain the story within the headlines and embarrass Prince Mohammed.

Whereas by no means accusing Prince Mohammed by title of orchestrating the homicide, Mr. Erdogan stated the choice to kill Mr. Khashoggi had come from the “highest ranges” of the Saudi authorities, leaving little doubt as to whom he was speaking about.

Prince Mohammed has denied that he had any foreknowledge of the plot in opposition to Mr. Khashoggi, however an evaluation by the Central Intelligence Company concluded that he had authorised the plan to kill or seize Mr. Khashoggi.

Extra just lately, Mr. Erdogan has sought to enhance ties with Center Japanese international locations that his authorities had differed with on the Arab Spring and different points, together with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

At the very least a number of the motivation is financial. Turkey’s economic system has been battered by inflation of greater than 60 %, and the worth of the native forex has dropped, leaving many Turks feeling a lot poorer than they weren’t way back. Turkey’s current diplomatic initiatives have led to funding agreements and forex swaps geared toward bolstering its economic system, and Saudi Arabia lifted an unofficial boycott of Turkish imports, permitting commerce between the 2 international locations to inch again up.