DUBAI (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday touted his country’s investment advantages to businessmen in the United Arab Emirates after a flurry of deals between the two countries seeking to build economic bridges after years of animosity.
Erdogan, visiting for the first time since 2013, received a grand reception on Monday with the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, meeting him on his arrival and the most tall tower of the world, the Burj Khalifa, projecting the Turkish flag.
The decision to curb a bitter regional rivalry, rooted in differences over the role of political Islam in the region, comes after Ankara launched a charm offensive last year at a time of economic turbulence in Turkey and then that the UAE is moving towards soft power politics.
“Our common goal is to take our bilateral relations to much higher levels in all areas,” Erdogan said at a business event. “Turkey offers very significant advantages to investors looking for alternatives to Asian-centric production areas.”
The UAE and Turkey on Monday signed a joint statement on opening negotiations for a bilateral trade and investment agreement as well as several agreements, including on defence, state media said. This follows investment deals worth billions of dollars signed in November during Sheikh Mohammed’s visit to Turkey. [L1N2UP1HN]
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The United Arab Emirates, the region’s trade and tourism hub, has said it wants to manage long-standing disputes with Turkey and Iran as it doubles economic growth after the pandemic.
“The UAE views economic and development cooperation…as a key tool to wisely manage various issues to rid our region of continued escalation,” Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said in a statement. Twitter message about Erdogan’s visit.
The divide stems from the Arab uprisings, when Turkey backed the Muslim Brotherhood and their Islamist allies challenging entrenched autocrats from Tunisia to Syria – alarming dynastic rulers in the UAE, who view the Muslim Brotherhood as a political and security threat .
(Reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen and Lisa Barrington; Writing by Ghaida Ghantous; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)
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