Israel, Turkey looking to expand economic partnership

JERUSALEM, Might 25 (Reuters) – Israel and Turkey’s high diplomats stated on Wednesday their international locations have been hoping to increase financial ties as they search an finish to greater than a decade of strained relations.

Turkish Overseas Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is on the second-day of a two-day journey to Israel and the Palestinian territories, the primary such go to by a senior Turkish official in 15 years.

“The objective is to kind and increase financial and civil cooperation between our international locations,” Israeli Overseas Minister Yair Lapid stated in a press release alongside Cavusoglu in Jerusalem, “and to leverage our two international locations’ comparative benefits regionally and globally, even in the course of the pandemic, and even in occasions of political stress.”

Lapid and Cavusoglu added that officers would start engaged on a brand new civil aviation settlement.

Turkey and Israel have been working to fix their long-strained ties, with vitality rising as a key space for potential cooperation. The 2 international locations expelled ambassadors in 2018 and have typically traded barbs over the Israeli-Palestinian battle. learn extra

“We imagine that normalization of our ties will even have a optimistic affect on the peaceable decision of the battle. Turkey is able to take duty to proceed the efforts in the direction of dialogue,” Cavusoglu stated.

Cavusoglu is because of go to Al-Aqsa Mosque afterward Wednesday, Islam’s third holiest web site and the scene of repeated clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police in the course of the holy month of Ramadan. He stated he had mentioned the difficulty with Lapid.

U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians aimed toward establishing an impartial Palestinian state in East Jerusalem, the West Financial institution and Gaza, collapsed in 2014 and the 2 sides haven’t held critical talks since then.

Reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Ali Kucukgocmen in Ankara; Modifying by Toby Chopra and Kim Coghill

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