As part of Turkey’s recent normalization efforts, the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the UAE is expected to herald not only a new era in ties but also bring more stability to the region as a whole.
Monday’s visit was the first high-level visit from the Turkish side since 2013, as both countries passed through several crises that were linked to regional conflicts and gas exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean. In a bid to bring a silver lining to this new relation-ship, the Gulf oil exporter is aiming to double or triple its trade volume with Turkey and reach the rest of the world’s markets by using the logistical advantage and supply chains of its new ally.
A day before the visit, Erdogan also wrote an op-ed for the UAE-based daily Khaleej Times, in which he underlined the importance of deepening bilateral cooperation in order to achieve regional peace, sta-bility and prosperity.
He also noted that Turkey wants to boost coopera-tion on diverse aspects such as climate change and water and food security. In late November, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mo-hammed bin Zayed paid a visit to Ankara as the first high-level visit in nine years, during which UAE earmarked a $10 billion fund for strategic invest-ments in cash-strapped Turkey’s energy and health sectors.
During that visit, the two countries also signed sev-eral security, economic and technological agree-ments.
Beyond its contributions to foreign investment flows, the rapprochement between the two countries is likely to ease the regional isolation of Turkey if Erdogan’s visit goes off as planned.
Samuel Ramani, associate fellow at the Royal United Service Institute, thinks that Turkey and the UAE are both trying to reduce the number of re-gional rivalries they are entangled in.
“Turkey’s efforts to de-escalate with the UAE mir-rors its approaches toward Saudi Arabia and Israel, while the UAE has been trying to present itself as a regional power that relies on diplomacy and eco-nomic strength rather than hard military power to achieve its goals,” he told Arab News. According to Ramani, the risk of heightened ten-sions in the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean for Turkey, as well as the newfound threat of the Houthis/Iran in Yemen to the UAE, might also ex-plain the timing of the de-escalation moves, even though they have been in the works for some time.Ahead of Erdogan’s arrival to Dubai, Burj Khalifa’s façade lit up with the colors of the Turkish flag, with the Turkish national anthem playing in the background. —AN
