Erdogan, MBZ meet for first time in nearly a decade
Separate agreements in trade, energy and the environment were inked.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan, in Ankara today, formally ending years of hostility that saw Turkey and the Gulf sheikhdom on the opposite sides of major conflicts in the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, and in the media. The pair were all smiles as they met in Erdogan’s 1,100-room palace in the Turkish capital.
The visit by the crown prince, commonly known by his initials MBZ, was the first since 2012. The cordial tone was set by a series of investment accords under which the UAE will invest up to $10 billion in Turkey’s increasingly shaky economy.
Separate agreements in trade, energy and the environment were also inked alongside a deal between the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and Turkey’ stock exchange, Borsa Istanbul.
Until recently, Turkey and the UAE were in near open conflict in Libya, where Turkish forces and Sunni Syrian mercenaries backed the former Government of National Unity against the eastern warlord Khalifa Hifter, who was militarily supported by the UAE. Turkey also accused MBZ of involvement in the bloody coup attempt in 2016 to overthrow Erdogan.
