Defense ties, Syria top Turkey's Fidan visit to Saudi Arabia
The visit by Turkey's top diplomat aimed to strengthen regional cooperation on Syria and enhance defense ties between Ankara and Riyadh.
ANKARA — Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will travel to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry announced Monday. Discussions are expected to focus on the situation in Syria and strengthening bilateral cooperation.
Fidan is set to meet with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, as well as other senior Saudi officials.
Among the regional issues, Syria is likely to be at the top of the agenda. Fidan is expected to emphasize the need for cooperation between Ankara and Riyadh to secure the removal of international sanctions on Syria, according to a Turkish diplomatic source speaking to reporters ahead of the visit.
Damascus' relations with both Riyadh and Ankara have experienced a swift thaw since the fall of the Syrian regime on Dec. 8. Fidan became the first foreign minister to visit the new transitional government in Damascus on Dec. 22. Meanwhile, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani made his first foreign trip to Riyadh on Jan. 2. More recently, Fidan participated in a regional summit on Syria held in Riyadh on Jan. 12.
On bilateral ties, Fidan is expected to discuss defense cooperation between the two countries. Ankara is seeking to seal a $6 billion defense deal with Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg reported, citing Turkish officials familiar with the matter.
The deal could involve the oil-rich kingdom purchasing warships, tanks and missiles from Turkey, according to Bloomberg.
Turkey-Saudi Arabia defense ties have seen rapid improvement since a rapprochement over the past two years, after bilateral relations hit rock bottom following the murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom's Istanbul Consulate in 2018.
The kingdom in 2023 purchased an unknown number of drones from Turkey’s Baykar, which manufactures internationally famed TB2 armed drones and is owned by the family of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s younger son-in-law.
Baykar and the state-owned Saudi Arabia Military Industries also signed a contract for local production of drones in the kingdom.
The two countries are aiming to raise their mutual trade volume, which stood at $8 billion last year, according to official data, to $10 billion this year.
