Turkey’s Erdogan arrives in Saudi Arabia, first stop on Gulf tour

ANKARA — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Jeddah on Monday, embarking upon his first regional tour after his reelection last May as Ankara scrambles to draw foreign funds to ease the country’s foreign currency crunch. 

Speaking before he departed to Saudi Arabia, the first leg of his tour, Erdogan said economic cooperation would be the main focus of his visits. “The primary agenda of our visits will be joint investment projects and commercial activities that we can carry out together with these countries,” he said.

In Jeddah, Erdogan is set to meet with Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as well as other Saudi officials. 

Following Jeddah, the Turkish president will travel to Qatar on Tuesday to meet with Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and then to the United Arab Emirates to meet with Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Nearly 200 Turkish businessmen are accompanying Erdogan during the tour. “Our bilateral trade volume with Gulf countries has increased from $1.6 billion to approximately $22 billion over the last 20 years,” Erdogan said, adding that his tour is aimed at raising these figures further through the business forums to be organized as part of his visit. 

Erdogan’s visit comes at a time when the Turkish government is scrambling to draw foreign funds to the country in a bid to ease Turkey’s foreign currency crunch amid unruly inflation, which stands at 38.2%. 

Turkey’s Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek toured the three countries over the past week in a bid to lay foundations ahead of Erdogan’s visit.