$50.7 billion secret

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan paid an official visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates from July 17 to 19.

Erdogan met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamed Al Thani and United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan respectively.

WHAT HAS BEEN GRANTED?

In the statement made by the Directorate of Communications after the meetings held in the United Arab Emirates, “13 documents were signed and accepted in various fields between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. It has been decided to deepen the existing cooperation in fields such as energy, transport, infrastructure, logistics, e-commerce, finance, health, food, tourism, real estate, construction, defense industry, artificial intelligence and advanced technologies. The total amount of the agreements signed in these areas is 50.7 billion dollars.

However, no information was provided on the details of the MoU signed in connection with the deals. However, the five agreements signed with Saudi Arabia two days before the visit to the United Arab Emirates were shared with the public one by one, and even pictures of the signing ceremony were presented to the media.

Bilateral relations between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) continue to gain momentum with new trade and economic cooperation in the past 2 years.

The UAE’s diplomatic relations, which began in April 1977 with Turkey, population 9.5 million, one of the important countries in the Gulf region, have been strengthening in all fields, especially in recent years.

Turkey is among the top 10 trading partners of the United Arab Emirates, which is noted for its investments in fields such as tourism and high-tech, as well as rich oil fields.

ERDOĞAN ONLY REFERRED

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has held numerous meetings with the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed Zayed Al Nahyan, in the past two years, emphasized the agreements signed yesterday in a statement to reporters about his latest visit, but did not provide details.

During Al Nahyan’s visit to Turkey in November 2021, 10 agreements were signed between the two countries. During the ceremony, which was broadcast on TV screens with live broadcast, Important Memorandum of Understanding between Abu Dhabi and Ankara on the Exchange of Financial Information in the Context of Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, Memorandum of Understanding between Abu Dhabi Port Company and Turkey Wealth Fund, Memorandum of Understanding between Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange and Borsa Istanbul, Memorandum of Understanding between the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Immediately after the signing ceremony, the United Arab Emirates announced that it had allocated $10 billion in funds for investments in Turkey.

13 AGREEMENTS WERE SIGNED IN THE LAST YEAR

New agreements were also signed during President Erdogan’s visit to Abu Dhabi in February 2022. During this visit, 13 agreements were signed in the fields of defense industry, health, climate change, industry, technology, culture, agriculture, trade, economy, land transport, maritime, youth, disaster management, meteorology, communication and archives.

The details of these agreements were shared with the public as soon as they were signed.

The “Turkey-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement” was signed in Abu Dhabi on March 3, 2023, in order to lay the foundation for the exponential increase in the volume of non-oil trade between the UAE and Turkey every year.

Looking at the last two years, it is worth noting that the transparency regarding the cooperation between Turkey and the UAE in the last 2 years has disappeared in the last visit.

BAE GAVE COLOR

While Turkish officials did not disclose details of the 13 deals worth $50.7 billion signed this week, the UAE side only gave information on two deals.

In the statement made by ADQ, the national wealth fund of Abu Dhabi, which is the largest of the emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates, it was said that two separate MoUs were signed for the purchase of $8.5 billion worth of bonds to be issued by Turkey for post-earthquake reconstruction activities and $3 billion financing for Turk Eximbank.

IS THERE AN INSTITUTION SOLD?

It is not yet known if public companies belonging to Turkey have been sold or if the UAE is a partner in any public projects to be carried out in Turkey thanks to the agreements reached with the UAE.

In his statement at the airport before the Gulf tour, President Erdoğan said: “These countries will have the situation of buying certain ‘assets’ from Turkey, there is no such thing as ‘they are selling BOTAŞ’. We know very well what can and cannot be sold, ”he said.

Al Nahyan had visited Turkey in November 2021. President Erdoğan also visited the United Arab Emirates, where relations deteriorated after the coup attempt on July 15, in February 2022, after 6 years.