Turkey's Erdogan runs soccer diplomacy with UAE, Libya at Champions League final

ANKARA, DUBAI — Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan engaged in apparent sports diplomacy on the sidelines of the Champions League final held in Istanbul over the weekend, hosting United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed and Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah.

The Emirati president, often referred to by his initials MBZ, is the first foreign head of state Erdogan hosted one-on-one following his June 3 inauguration, which was attended by dozens of world leaders. The Emirati leader’s one-day working visit to Istanbul on Saturday saw the two discussing bilateral ties, watching a soccer game together and walking hand-in-hand after dining at an Istanbul restaurant.

“We discussed ways to further strengthen economic cooperation and the strategic partnership between our two nations, and ways to promote regional stability towards a prosperous future for all,” the Emirati president wrote on Twitter.

The Turkish presidency said the two leaders met at an Istanbul airport upon the UAE president’s arrival but gave no further details. A video released by the Turkish presidency showed them hugging on the tarmac, where Erdogan gifted his Emirati counterpart Turkey’s first locally manufactured electric car the Togg.

Erdogan and MBZ watched the Champions League final between the UK’s Manchester City Football Club — which is majority owned by the Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment founded by MBZ's brother Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed — and Italian soccer club Inter Milan at an Istanbul stadium.

Images from the stadium released by the Turkish presidency showed MBZ and Dbeibah, the prime minister of Libya’s Tripoli-based government, warmly greeting each other on the sidelines of the game.

The encounter is likely a soccer diplomacy push by Ankara to further advance the detente between Dbeibah’s government and Abu Dhabi, which has backed the Tripoli-based government’s rival in the conflict. The Emirati position later softened with Dbeibah paying several visits to the UAE. 

Ankara and Abu Dhabi are backing rival sides in the Libyan civil war. Along with Russia, the UAE has supported Libya's eastern forces led by Khalifa Hifter who fought against the country’s Tripoli government, which is internationally recognized and backed by Turkey. Turkey’s newly appointed Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Khaled al-Mishri, Libya’s president of the High Council of State last week.

Following the game, which saw Manchester City F.C. take home the Champions League title trophy after a 1-0 win against Inter Milan, Erdogan and MBZ dined at an Istanbul restaurant on the European side of the city. A video showing the two leaders leaving the restaurant hand-in-hand has reverberated across social media platforms.

Cumhurbaşkanı Erdoğan ve BAE lideri Florya'daki restorandan el ele ayrıldı. pic.twitter.com/b4d3tj0EJA

— DarkWeb Haber (@Darkwebhaber) June 11, 2023

The UAE leader’s visit came nearly two weeks after Erdogan secured his third term as Turkey’s president on May 28 and entered his third decade in power.

After years of deep freeze, Turkey-UAE ties have seen major progress over the past two years as part of Ankara’s fence-mending push to restore its relations with former regional foes, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel and the UAE.

In March, Turkey — the Emirates’ sixth-largest trading partner — and the UAE signed a $40 billion trade agreement over five years. Abu Dhabi ratified the agreement on May 31 after Erdogan’s reelection.

Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, an Emirati analyst and professor of political science, said this agreement and the two countries' ongoing cooperation are a reflection of the UAE president’s approach to foreign policy, using personal relationships to develop trust.

“This just shows you how much President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed values friendship as much as the various strategic aspects of the relationship,” Abdulla told Al-Monitor on Friday ahead of MBZ’s visit.

Yet relations between Turkey and the UAE, along with other Gulf Cooperation Council countries, suffered between 2010 and 2020 with the outset of the Arab Spring and later in the aftermath of the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi. In 2016, media outlets close to Erdogan accused the UAE of funding the perpetrators of the failed coup against the Turkish strongman.

Under Erdogan and following the Arab Spring in 2011, Turkey was seen as a major backer of the Muslim Brotherhood in Tunisia, Egypt and Syria. The group, which is vehemently opposed by and outlawed in both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, was ousted from power in Egypt in 2013 and has been ostracized from the Tunisian government since 2022. Both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have now embraced the country’s ruler Bashar al-Assad, while Ankara hasn’t.

Turkey also sided with Qatar during the 2017 Gulf dispute that saw Doha ​blockaded by its neighbors as they blasted its ties to the Islamist group. That blockade ended in 2021.

The UAE-Turkey relationship has gone through stages, explained Abdulla, with its high point occurring before the Arab Spring when Turkey was one of the UAE’s best trade partners.

“Even during the period of political rivalry that the two countries had, the economics of [the relationship] were strong and solid,” said Abdulla. After tensions thawed with Qatar in 2021, the UAE set up a $10 billion investment fund in Turkey.

The UAE-Turkey relationship took an almost 180-degree turn after the 2021 reconciliation, explained Abdulla, who expects the two countries’ relationship to flourish even more after overcoming this political hurdle.