29 April 2022; MEMO: Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, held meetings with King Salman and Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, late on April 28, in his first visit to Saudi Arabia since 2017 after the killing of dissident Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, on the premises of the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
Erdogan was accompanied by a large delegation, including ministers and senior officials, Anadolu News Agency reports.
After the talks, Erdogan said on Twitter: "We believe that it is in our common interest to increase our cooperation with Saudi Arabia in areas such as health, energy, food safety, agricultural technologies, defence industry and finance."
"We underline the importance we pay to the cooperation against terrorism as we denounce all sorts of terror," he also noted.
Over the past year, Ankara has embarked on a diplomatic push to reset economic relations with Saudi Arabia after years of antagonism following the 2011 Arab Spring.
Shipments dropped to Saudi Arabia, once a key market for Turkey before Jamal Khashoggi was killed in Istanbul in 2018.
Turkiye seeks to sign a trade agreement with Saudi Arabia as Turkish exports to the country are down from around $3.2 billion to $200 million in 2021.
