ANKARA/WASHINGTON — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed on Wednesday within the first such since July 2023, throughout which they signed agreements to broaden their once-fraught bilateral ties and amid shifting regional dynamics that current new alternatives for each international locations.
Sheikh Mohammed arrived in Ankara round 3 p.m. native time (8 a.m. ET), main a high-level delegation. The Emirati delegation included Inside Minister Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohamed bin Zayed, Presidential Court docket Deputy Chairman Sheikh Zayed bin Mohamed bin Zayed and presidential advisor Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Tahnoon, in accordance with the UAE’s state-run WAM information company.
From the Turkish facet, Protection Minister Yasar Guler, Economic system Minister Mehmet Simsek and intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin joined the talks, together with different senior officers.
Following almost 4 hours of conferences, Erdogan and his Emirati counterpart oversaw the signing of seven memorandums of understanding protecting cooperation in tourism, agriculture and prescription drugs.
خلال ترؤسهما الاجتماع الأول للجنة الإستراتيجية العليا.. رئيس الدولة والرئيس التركي يؤكدان مواصلة تعزيز علاقات البلدين#وام https://t.co/FEmSuTZYLd pic.twitter.com/ZCaqkmQfSa
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Noting that the UAE is one in every of Turkey’s main buying and selling companions within the Center East, Erdogan described the talks as “productive” throughout a short on-camera speech forward of the signing ceremony.
“The talks additionally reviewed progress in UAE-Turkey relations,” WAM reported, notably within the fields of financial system, commerce and expertise.
From rivals to protection companions
The one-day go to augmented progress that started in 2023 towards ending years of frosty relations between Turkey and the UAE. The 2 leaders have since held a number of telephone calls, and Erdogan visited the UAE in 2021 and 2024. Most just lately, the 2 met on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Italy in June 2024.
Turkey’s ties with the UAE — in addition to with Saudi Arabia and Egypt — had lengthy been strained over Ankara’s backing of the Muslim Brotherhood, which all three states designated as a terrorist group. Searching for to interrupt its regional isolation and following the group’s overthrow from energy in Egypt, Ankara started rolling again its overt assist within the final 5 years
“The 2 international locations at the moment are managing to compartmentalize their variations,” Sinem Cengiz, a researcher at Qatar College’s Gulf Research Heart, advised Al-Monitor.
“This strategy has allowed their relations to evolve from zero-sum to cooperation,” she added.
Erdogan’s 2021 go to to the UAE marked a turning level, closing a turbulent chapter throughout which Turkish officers overtly accused Emirati leaders of supporting the failed 2016 coup try.
Sarcastically, Sheikh Mohammed’s go to this week got here simply sooner or later after the anniversary of that coup.
On Wednesday, Erdogan and the Emirati president additionally co-chaired the inaugural session of the Excessive-Degree Strategic Cooperation Council — launched in 2023 to formalize rising ties.
“On the bilateral stage, the UAE is pursuing higher strategic autonomy by diversifying its alliances past conventional companions,” Cengiz stated.
Protection cooperation has surged since 2023. The 2 international locations have since signed over 20 protection trade agreements. Turkish aerospace agency TUSAS and UAE-based Calidus signed a separate $50 billion protection and house partnership deal aimed toward co-developing superior unmanned aerial automobiles, missile techniques and satellite tv for pc applied sciences.
Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a distinguished Emirati tutorial and professor of political science on the United Arab Emirates College in Al Ain, advised Al-Monitor that the present relationship between Turkey and the UAE is framed round strategic pursuits. “There’s a deep, strategic dialog going between Ankara and Abu Dhabi lately on many points, be it regional, be it bilateral, be it even past the Center East, in Africa, somewhere else,” Abdulla stated.
Frequent pursuits in post-Assad Syria?
The 2 leaders additionally mentioned a variety of regional and world points, notably the latest state of affairs within the Center East, in accordance with WAM.
The leaders “underscored the necessity to prioritize diplomacy and dialogue in resolving conflicts,” the Emirati company stated.
Wednesday’s go to marked Sheikh Mohammed’s first journey to Turkey because the collapse of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad in December of 2024, a seismic shift that analysts imagine is poised to deliver the 2 capitals nearer.
“Regional developments, particularly in Syria, have clarified what Ankara and Abu Dhabi more and more understood,” Robert Mogielnicki of the Arab Gulf States Institute advised Al-Monitor.
“It was of their mutual pursuits to take care of sturdy working relations,” he defined.
Turkey, which as soon as backed insurgent forces combating the Syrian regime, has now emerged as a better accomplice of Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa. Ankara — hoping to take care of its affect in Syria — desires the allied administration in Damascus to consolidate its energy within the war-ravaged nation, which might require Gulf funds to help within the reconstruction of the nation.
The UAE, in flip, is rising its financial foothold within the nation’s reconstruction financial system. It has already stepped up its financial engagement with Syria. Dubai Ports World signed a $800 million take care of Syria earlier this week for infrastructure and logistic providers at Tartous port on the coast off the Mediterranean.
Sharaa paid his second go to to Emirates final week, assembly with Sheikh Mohammed and different senior UAE officers.
“There’s a vacuum of a kind after Iran retreated in lots of locations within the area,” Abdulla advised Al-Monitor. Together with the collapse of the Assad dynasty, the affect of Iran within the nation, which was one of many principal backers of the Syrian regime, additionally vanished.
“So there’s a must fill on this strategic vacuum,” Abdulla added.
On Syria, in accordance with Abdulla, Turkey and the UAE are in settlement “nearly 90% of the time.”
Bridging Caucasus divides
One other potential space for regional cooperation lies within the Southern Caucasus, the place worldwide diplomatic efforts intention to reconcile Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Earlier this month, the UAE hosted talks between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in an effort to finalize a March 10 peace deal signed between the 2 international locations.
Ankara, which has tied its personal normalization with Yerevan to the profitable conclusion of that peace deal, seeks to hurry up the peace course of between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The timing of the “go to underscores their rising cooperation within the South Caucasus,” Cengiz stated.
The Emirati mediation efforts “mirror the UAE’s need to reposition itself as a regional bridge-builder, aligning in sure areas with Turkey’s pursuits,” in accordance with Cengiz.
The high-stakes dance
Whereas each the UAE and Turkey have thus far managed to compartmentalize their variations, some stay in a number of areas.
Turkey hasn’t totally lower ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, and it vocally helps Hamas, an affiliate of the group. Each the Brotherhood and the Palestinian militant group, in the meantime, are nonetheless thought of hostile actors by the UAE.
However in accordance with analysts, each international locations have causes to maintain these disagreements from affecting their mutual pursuits.
“Each have a powerful incentive to construction relations in such a approach that minimizes dangers going ahead,” Mogielnicki stated.
“There’s a prevailing view within the area that international coverage should be good for enterprise,” he added.
Commerce between the 2 nations exceeded $15 billion in 2024, in accordance with official figures. Tariffs on over 80% of traded items had been both slashed or fully eliminated below the Complete Financial Partnership Settlement (CEPA), signed in 2023 as the 2 international locations intention to lift their mutual commerce to $40 billion by 2028.
“There’s additionally a way that getting relations proper comes with substantial financial and industrial potential, too,” Mogielnicki added.
Cengiz, in flip, famous that in another regional conflicts, the divides had been narrowing.
“In Libya, for instance, the UAE broke its long-standing coverage and moved nearer to Turkey’s place,” Cengiz stated.
Whereas Turkey has backed the internationally acknowledged authorities in Tripoli, the Authorities of Nationwide Unity, the UAE has backed Common Khalifa Hifter, who leads the Libyan Nationwide Military within the jap a part of the nation.
Safety forces stand guard as Libyans carry out the morning prayer of Eid al-Fitr close to a portrait of the army strongman of jap Libya, Khalifa Hiftar, within the port metropolis of Benghazi on March 31, 2025. (ABDULLAH DOMA/AFP through Getty Photographs)
Nevertheless, each international locations’ positions on the North African state have seemingly converged in recent times, with the UAE backing reconciliation talks between rival factions and Turkey taking a extra balanced stance by rising engagement with the Hifter camp.
“We would have just a few variations right here and there, however for the primary time … I feel we’re in for stability within the area, initially,” Abdulla stated.
“We’ve moved now from the unhealthy ‘C’ of battle to the nice ‘C’ of dialog and cooperation.”