Turkey's Erdogan anticipates 'serious investments' from Gulf ahead of visit

ANKARA — Speaking ahead of his Gulf tour on that starts on Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the Gulf countries were ready to seriously increase their investments in Turkey as the Turkish government intensifies efforts to ease its foreign currency crunch.

Erdogan is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on a trip that starts out on Monday and concludes on Wednesday. 

On his way back to Turkey from NATO’s annual summit in the Lithuanian capital, Erdogan reiterated his hope to strengthen his country’s ties in all areas with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates during his visit to the region next week. 

“During our visit, we will have the opportunity to personally follow up on the support these countries will provide to Turkey. They’ve already expressed that they were ready to make serious investments in Turkey during my previous contacts," he was quoted by the Turkish press as saying Thursday. 

"I hope we will finalize these during this visit. These investments may be in [Turkey] or perhaps in Saudi Arabia, Qatar or the United Arab Emirates,” he added. 

Erdogan’s Gulf tour will mark his first regional trip after his reelection in May. Ahead of the tour, the Turkish government has launched a major push to attract Gulf funds to Turkey amid Turkey’s acute foreign currency crunch. In a bid to lay the groundwork ahead of Erdogan’s tour to the country, Turkey’s Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek traveled Wednesday to Saudi Arabia, the final stop of his Gulf tour including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. 

Following his meeting with Simsek in Riyadh late Wednesday, Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan said the two ministers discussed ways to increase economic and finance cooperation between Turkey and Saudi Arabia. “We discussed methods and opportunities of cooperation and areas of developing financial and economic relations between the two friendly countries,” he wrote on Twitter.

Today, I was pleased to meet with HE the Turkish Minister of Treasury and Finance, Mehmet Simsek, who led the Turkish delegation visiting #Saudi_Arabia. We discussed aspects of cooperation and ways to enhance financial and economic relations between our countries. pic.twitter.com/ocuo1JrHPF

— محمد عبدالله عبدالعزيز الجدعان | Mohammed Aljadaan (@MAAljadaan) July 12, 2023

Earlier this week, Turkey’s Trade Minister Omer Bolat also met with Saudi Arabia’s Housing Minister Majid Al-Hogail in Istanbul on the sidelines of a Turkish-Saudi business forum. In his address to the Turkish and Saudi businessmen, Bolat said the two countries were looking to raise the trade volume between them to $10 billion. It currently stands at $6 billion. 

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported that more than a dozen deals were signed between Turkish and Saudi firms on the margins of the business forum.