Türkiye wants to further boost ties with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE: President Erdogan

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA (AA) - Türkiye wants to further strengthen its ties with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said ahead of an upcoming visit to the Gulf countries.

"We have hope in this visit. I sent my friends ahead of time. They visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE. We will visit (these countries) with a delegation.

"We would like to further strengthen all kinds of relations between us by traveling to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE," Erdogan told reporters on Wednesday while returning from a two-day NATO summit in Lithuania.

Erdogan is expected to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE on July 17-19.

Ahead of Erdogan, Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz and Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek paid a visit to Qatar to discuss economic cooperation.

"During the preliminary visits, our friends gave certain information. During our visit, we will have the opportunity to personally see and experience the support they will give Türkiye.

"In our previous meetings, they said: 'We are ready to make significant investments in Türkiye.' We will finalize this through this visit," Erdogan said, adding that these investments could be in Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, or the UAE.