Turkey’s Erdogan hopes for ‘new era’ in relations with Saudi Arabia

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he hoped to “open the doors to a new era” in relations with Saudi Arabia as he departed on his first trip to the Gulf kingdom since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi caused a deep rift between the two regional powers.

Speaking before flying to Jeddah for meetings with King Salman and his son Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince, Erdogan said the two nations wanted to increase their political, economic, military and cultural co-operation.

“We will discuss Turkey-Saudi relations in all their dimensions,” he said in a press conference. His visit comes on the heels of a months-long drive by Ankara to repair its damaged ties with Saudi Arabia and other one-time regional foes.

Erdogan’s encounter with Prince Mohammed, who is the country’s day to day ruler, will be highly symbolic given that the Turkish president indirectly accused him of ordering the murder of Khashoggi, a former Washington Post columnist who was killed and dismembered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. His killing by a Saudi security team led to a breakdown in relations between Riyadh and Ankara.

Though the Turkish president never criticised the Saudi crown prince by name, Erdogan had said the murder was ordered by the “highest levels” of the Saudi government while making clear that he did not blame King Salman. A drip-feed of leaks with grizzly details about the killing were seen by analysts as an attempt to tarnish the image of the crown prince.

Saudi Arabia has proved one of the most challenging relationships to fix as Erdogan embarked on a significant shift in foreign policy at the start of last year. The Turkish president launched a drive to rebuild his country’s ties with former regional adversaries including the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Armenia and Israel — as well as with the west.

The first significant breakthrough came earlier this month when an Istanbul court halted the trial of 26 Saudis who were being tried in absentia for the Khashoggi killing — a key demand from Riyadh. Saudi Arabia had already convicted and jailed a number of the suspects, although it cleared a senior aide to Prince Mohammed and a former top intelligence official accused of involvement in the killing.

At the same time, Turkish business groups said the Gulf state had begun easing the unofficial embargo that had hit the country’s exports and was widely seen as an act of retaliation against Turkey for its response to the Khashoggi affair.

Turkish officials hope the mending of ties with the oil-rich kingdom will boost their economy through Saudi investment in their country and the rekindling of trade.

Turkey’s finance minister Nureddin Nebati held a video call on Wednesday with his Saudi counterpart, Mohammed al-Jadaan, in order to “exchange ideas about improving co-operation on the economy, trade and investment”.

Erdogan sorely needs inflows of foreign capital to help plug a trade deficit that is being fuelled by soaring global energy and commodity prices in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Analysts say Turkey’s large import bill, combined with soaring inflation, risks putting renewed pressure on the volatile Turkish lira in the months ahead.

Erdogan, a practising Muslim, will travel on Friday to the city of Mecca to perform prayers at the holiest site in Islam in the final days of the sacred month of Ramadan.