Sharjah 24 – WAM: The UAE and Turkey aim to strengthen and advance their bilateral relations.

Under this framework, officials from the two countries held meetings and calls to discuss ways of reinforcing their bilateral ties and a number of regional and international issues of mutual concern.

During a phone call on 30th August, 2021, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of Turkey, discussed their bilateral ties and ways of strengthening them, to serve their countries’ mutual interests.

His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and President Erdoğan also exchanged views on several regional and international issues of mutual concern.

On 18th August, 2021, Erdoğan received an Emirati delegation chaired by Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, National Security Adviser.

During the meeting, which took place in Ankara, the two sides discussed ways of boosting the bilateral ties between the UAE and Turkey, most notably in the areas of the economy, trade, investment, transport, health and energy.

Turkey is participating in Expo 2020 Dubai. Tugay Tunçer, Turkish Ambassador to the UAE, described this participation as a new era of cooperation between the two countries.

He stressed that Expo 2020 Dubai will help achieve Turkey’s vision of creating a diversified tourism sector, including from the UAE and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

In early November, the UAE provided AED36.7 million (US$10 million) to support the rehabilitation of some Turkish regions affected by forest fires and floods and expressed its solidarity with the Turkish people during such dire circumstances, highlighting its keenness to provide appropriate support to mitigate the humanitarian repercussions and damage caused by floods in the north and forest fires in the southwest of Turkey.

The non-oil foreign trade between the two countries is distributed between direct trade, accounting for 88.5 percent and valued at AED28.9 billion, and free zones that accounted for 11.5 percent, with a value of AED3.7 billion.