Turkiye seeks foreign trade ties with new economic strategy

Turkiye is opening the door to cooperation in foreign trade with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Armenia with its new economic strategy. Economic agreements are likely to be signed between Turkiye and these countries this and the next few months. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to visit UAE this month.

He is also expected to pay a visit to Saudi Arabia in the coming months. An embargo imposed by Saudi Arabia on Turkish products may be lifted.

Erdogan earlier said his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog is expected to visit Turkiye this month and that could usher in a new era in bilateral relations.

Turkiye is opening the door to cooperation in foreign trade with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Armenia with its new economic strategy. Economic agreements are likely to be signed between Turkiye and these countries this and the next few months. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to visit UAE this month.

Observing that there has been good momentum in Turkiye’s relations with the Gulf countries recently, Erdogan drew attention to the fact that the new dynamics emerging in the region played an important role in this, according to a news agency.

While diplomatic relations with Egypt have been mutually maintained at the chargé d’affaires level since 2013, official contacts were held last year.

Egyptian business delegations visited Turkiye in January to strengthen commercial relations and possible steps were discussed during the meeting.

Turkiye’s diplomatic ties with Egypt came to a standstill after the 2013 military coup there. The developments had an impact on bilateral trade, and a fluctuating course was observed in the trade volume over the years.

While the foreign trade volume of Turkiye and Egypt totaled $4.8 billion in 2013, it reached its highest level at $6.1 billion last year, $4 billion of which consisted of exports while $2.1 billion comprised imports.

While Turkiye exported $5.2 billion worth of goods to the UAE last year, it bought $2.4 billion of products from the country.

The trade volume between Turkiye and Saudi Arabia was around $5.6 billion in 2015 before the diplomatic problems. While Turkiye sold approximately $2.4 billion worth of products to Saudi Arabia in 2020, the figure fell to $215.1 million last year. Bilateral trade volume in 2021 amounted to $3.5 billion.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)