A Promising Summer is Coming for All. With a New Level in Turkey-UAE Relations
Last Updated: 2023-07-27A New Level in Turkey-UAE Relations
Anyone who saw the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to the UAE notes the amount of detail in which the UAE has tried to say "warmly welcome" to a new phase of relations with Turkey.
From lighting up Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower, in the colours of the Turkish flag to celebrate President Erdogan's visit, to the unique performance in Turkish of the most famous Emirati singer Hussain Al Jassmi on the piano, and through social media accounts tweeting under a hashtag praising the relations' reviving, and the posted videos of Emiratis speaking Turkish.
While passengers on Dubai's main highway drove with signs praising bilateral relations between the two countries, the low-cost airline Flydubai announced immediately that it would increase the number of weekly flights from 7 to 12 from the UAE to Turkey, which means more tourists arriving.
In addition to celebrating Turkey's National Day at Expo 2020, the multi-billion dollar international icon of exhibitions to celebrate Turkish culture and history at the World Expo.
There, the Turkish flag was waved, while the Turkish president toured the exhibition to the rhythm of Turkish music with an audience of Turkish citizens residing in the UAE. All this hospitality was received with admiration by the Turkish president, where Erdogan commended the UAE in front of the audience for being the first Arab country to host the World Expo.
Following the celebration of the Turkish National Day, the Turkish president met with a number of Emirati and Turkish businessmen in Abu Dhabi, inviting them to invest in Turkey by saying: "In your capacity as the representative of the private sector in the UAE, I am sure you are fully aware of the benefits of establishing business and investment partnerships with Turkey."
"The will shown by statesmen is very important for Turkey- UAE relations to reach the level they deserve, but you who know the potential of the two countries, especially in trade and investment, there is a strong collective will to develop trade relations and increase investment," he said, adding that "our economic and bilateral relations have a deep-rooted history and robust infrastructure."
I was there as an investor and businessman, as the Director General of Mersat Investment Group headquartered in Turkey, which owns a subsidiary "Irsaa Company for International Business" in the UAE, as a member of Turkish Exporters' Assembly (TIM), in the meeting on the level of delegations between the two countries that included the Turkish president and a group of businessmen. The invitation by the Turkish president to invest in Turkey was auspicious, which suggests a phase full of bilateral relations.
The trade between Turkey and the UAE in the first half of 2021 was more than $7 billion, a 100 percent growth compared to the same period in 2020, according to official UAE statistics.
Ahead of his historic visit to the UAE, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote: "The volume of non-oil trade between Turkey and the UAE has reached nearly $89.6 billion over the last decade," and the Turkish president continued: "The trade between the two countries has increased from $7.3 billion in 2019 to $8.9 billion in 2020, an increase of 21%, a target increased to double in the coming years." Despite the estrangement, frosty and sometimes boycott through this decade, trade between the two countries seems to have remained on track.
Turkey ranks 11th among the UAE's largest trading partners, while the wealthy Gulf state is Turkey's 12th trading partner globally, and Turkey's largest trading partner in the Gulf region.
There are nearly 400 companies in Turkey established with Emirati capital, and the real estate sector is at the top of the UAE's list of investments in the country, besides the significant investments in the banking sector, port operation and tourism sector.
The historic summit saw the signing of 13 agreements promising to improve bilateral relations, including a memorandum of understanding on investment cooperation, a protocol of cooperation on media and communication, a letter of intent to start cooperation meetings on the defence industry, a memorandum of understanding on cooperation on land and sea transport, a joint statement on the start of negotiations on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), including a memorandum of understanding on cooperation on agricultural cooperation, and another one on cooperation in industry and advanced technologies.
It also includes memorandums of understanding on cooperation in health, culture, youth, disaster and emergency management, and meteorology.
All expectations that this visit will bring more rapprochement and promotion bilateral relations will be translated into growth and prosperity expected in various sectors of the work of the Turkish economy, as we expect the Turkish lira to take a breath, and will begin to improve as the number of the Gulf tourists and investors increases. The next stage will see more real estate for Emirati businessmen investments, with unprecedented strength, as an expected reaction to the past period spanning nearly a decade.
All indications show that the bet in the next phase will be on economic and investment relations, which are the only ones able to ease tensions, given the pending cases, particularly in the political aspects.
An op-ed by: Mr. Abdulkader Tahhan
The Director General of Mersat Investment Group.
A Member of Turkish Exporters' Assembly (TIM)
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