ANKARA — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Turkey next week to meet his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ankara announced on Wednesday.
The Turkish statement said the two leaders will meet on July 28 to discuss steps to improve cooperation as well as international and regional issues.
The frenemies will meet for the first time in 14 years amid swiftly improving ties after years of locking horns. The last time Netanyahu visited Turkey was in 2009, before a military raid on a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla that killed nine Turkish activists in 2010. After the incident, the two countries severed their diplomatic relations.
Several efforts to restore ties failed until last year, when Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited Turkey in March. Herzog’s visit came as part of Ankara’s regional fence-mending with its former regional foes, including Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
