“We [Turkey] have lifted visa requirement with Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. We are working to lift visa requirements with Russia. Why not do the same with Saudi Arabia?” asked the prime minister on Tuesday during a speech he delivered at a luncheon attended by Turkish and Saudi businessmen in Riyadh.
Turkey and Lebanon signed an agreement to lift visa requirements for their nationals in a bid to boost trade, tourism and economic cooperation in early January. Syria, Jordan and Libya abolished visa requirements for Turkish nationals in deals concluded last year.
“There is no shift in Turkey’s foreign policy. Our efforts to boost cooperation with Syria are not less important than our efforts to boost cooperation with Bulgaria. We will side with Iraq in its difficult times as we did for Georgia. Our commercial activities with Jordan and Libya are as important as those with Russia. We attach as much importance to cooperation with Saudi Arabia as we do our bid to join the EU. No one should invent different meanings for all these,” Erdoğan remarked.
The Turkish prime minister also called on Saudi businessmen to expand their investments in Turkey, recalling that Turkey was among the 14 countries whose ratings were recently upgraded by international credit agency Moody’s Investors Service. Moody’s upgraded Turkey’s rating from Ba3 to Ba2 earlier this month.
Erdoğan also expressed the bond he felt with the Saudi public. “We may be speaking different languages. The roughly 3,000-kilometer distance between our countries does not eliminate the fact that we are brothers, friends and relatives. History has made us brothers. Our beliefs, common culture and common traditions made us brothers. … We will construct the future of this region together,” he stated.
He also extended his thanks to Saudi Arabia for granting him the 2010 King Faisal International Prize (KFIP). Erdoğan was bestowed the prize for his service to Islam.
