Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived in Riyadh on Tuesday, Saudi media said, his first visit to the kingdom in over two years as Saudi Arabia moves closer to its rival-turned-ally.
Ties between Turkey and Saudi Arabia have steadily recovered in recent years, with the countries cooperating on a range of diplomatic issues.
This includes support for Gaza and backing Syria’s new government in the wake of the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in 2024.
Erdoğan met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during the visit, his first to the kingdom since July 2023, which was part of a Gulf trip aimed at drumming up investment.
There was no official indication of what the two sides would discuss.
But Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu reported that they would discuss the “deepening cooperation” between the countries as well as regional and global developments.
It added that Erdoğan would then travel to Cairo on Wednesday.
The visit comes days after two sources told Agence France-Presse that Turkey would not be joining a mutual defense pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had said earlier this month that they had entered talks aimed at joining the alliance.
But experts like Umar Karim of the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom warn that Turkey will have to balance any thaw with Riyadh against relations with other regional rivals.
“I think its in this visit that it will become clear what Turkey can commit to Saudis in terms of this rivalry with UAE and in terms of the security threat from Israel,” Karim told AFP.
“Based on what Turkey can and cannot deliver there will be this trilateral agreement,” he said
“Because Turkish elites have financial interests in Dubai and the UAE is playing an important role in stabilizing the Turkish economy, they cannot afford to go openly against it.”
Relations between Riyadh and Turkey were seriously strained after Saudi agents murdered Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate General in Istanbul in October 2018.
Turkey angered Saudi Arabia by vigorously pursuing the case at the time, opening an investigation and briefing international media about the lurid details of the murder.
The meeting in Riyadh comes days ahead of a potential round of talks in Turkey between the United States and Iran on February 6, an Arab official told AFP early Tuesday, after Tehran called for the restart of nuclear talks and Washington warned of consequences if a deal was not reached.
Erdoğan has emerged as one of the key mediators leading a diplomatic push to find a resolution between the long-time foes to head off open conflict between the two sides.
© Agence France-Presse