President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wrote an article for the Turkey special supplement of a newspaper published in the United Arab Emirates. “Our efforts to improve relations will contribute to stability at the global level. The increase in the areas of cooperation between the two countries will reflect positively on our region. It is also significant that the rapprochement in our relations took place at a time when global competition increased.” said.
“IT IS SIGNIFICANT TO HAVE IT ACCOMPLISHED AT A TIME OF GLOBAL COMPETITION”
**The entire article written by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is as follows:
“The rapprochement that started between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates is gaining a new momentum with our mutual visits. I would like to express my satisfaction that our relations as the countries of the two regions have evolved towards cooperation. I believe that the increase in the areas of cooperation between the two countries will reflect positively on our region. It is also significant that it took place at a time when it was rising.
“REGIONAL COUNTRIES ARE IMPORTANT FOR TURKEY”
All regional countries are important for Turkey. It is also important that the United Arab Emirates is Turkey’s largest trading partner among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. In the last 10 years, non-oil trade between the two countries has been around 89.6 billion dollars, and the trade volume is increasing every year. The trade volume of 7.3 billion dollars in 2019 increased by 21 percent in 2020 and reached 8.9 billion dollars. We aim to double our trade volume, which continues at the same level in 2021, in the coming years. In addition, the two countries have the potential to cooperate in various regions of the world, especially in our close environment and Africa. Turkey has become a center of attraction with its geopolitical location, human capital, area of activity, production power and stabilizing role and is always open to constructive cooperation.
I believe that Turkey and the UAE can jointly contribute to regional peace, cooperation and prosperity. Our cooperation areas, historical, cultural and ancient values offer us serious opportunities in this process. Our efforts to develop bilateral relations will also contribute to ensuring stability at the global level.
“WE ARE READY TO STRIVE TOGETHER TO SOLVE REGIONAL PROBLEMS”
Turkey is one of the rare countries that try to balance its foreign policy interests with peace and stability. We strive to apply this principle to all parties we come into contact with. Making our interests common, expanding the fields of cooperation with the “win-win” formula, and joint struggle against threats are our basic principles. As Turkey, we are ready to develop our cooperation with every country and to make efforts together for the solution of regional problems. The fact that the dialogue, which has intensified recently between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, has now turned into concrete cooperation, has also shown that if we take the initiative, we can shape our common future together.
As Turkey, we do not see the security and stability of the United Arab Emirates and all our other brothers in the Gulf region separate from the security and stability of our own country. We believe wholeheartedly in the importance of deepening our cooperation in this context in the coming period.
“WE ARE HAPPY TO TURN A NEW PAGE”
With the visit of my brother Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, to Ankara on November 24, 2021, we are happy to open a new page in Turkey-United Arab Emirates (UAE) relations. The economic agreements signed during this visit also contain important clues about the future of our bilateral relations. With the agreements we signed in the fields of economy, finance, energy, petrochemistry, technology, transportation, infrastructure, health, food and agriculture, we laid the foundations of cooperation between the two countries in the near future. Finally, it was a remarkable development that Turkish and UAE central banks signed a swap agreement worth approximately 5 billion USD in local currencies.
My visit to the UAE in the coming days will not only show the importance we attach to the friendship between the two countries, but will also enable us to further our cooperation. We aim to advance cooperation between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates on energy, health, agriculture, logistics, infrastructure, finance, tourism as well as climate change, energy, water and food security. I am of the opinion that both sides are ready to set new targets for further investment and cooperation. I believe that this cooperation will have positive reflections not only in bilateral relations but also at the regional level. In this context, these positive developments in our relations are valuable in themselves.
I am pleased to be stepping into another 50 years of our friendship and brotherhood with the United Arab Emirates on the basis of common interests, mutual respect and trust. On behalf of our nation, I offer my most heartfelt greetings and conversations to the brotherly people of the United Arab Emirates.”