The president of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived this afternoon at Saudi Arabiaon the first stop of his tour of the wealthy Gulf monarchies, aiming to attract investment and to strengthen the trade relations of his country, which is facing a serious economic crisis.

Erdogan arrived in Jeddah, where he will meet with King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmanthe de facto leader of Saudi Arabia since 2017. He will then visit Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Saudi public television Al-Ekhbariya broadcast footage of his arrival at a Turkish-Saudi business forum.

Erdogan has recently reached out to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, two countries with which he has had strained relations for years.

“We have made great progress in our relations with the Gulf countries,” he said before departing for Jeddah. “The volume of our bilateral trade with the Gulf countries, from 1.6 billion dollars, reached about 22 billion dollars in the last 20 years,” he said, speaking of “fraternal, historical ties” with these countries. On this tour “we will look for ways to increase this number even more”, he promised.

She is Erdogan’s second visit to Saudi Arabia, after Ankara’s rapprochement with Riyadh, after a period of “freezing” in their diplomatic relations, culminating in the murder, in October 2018, of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside his country’s consulate in Istanbul. At the time Erdogan blamed Saudi officials, and UN and CIA experts blamed the crown prince himself. However, Riyadh denies that it ordered the killing of the journalist.

Mohammed bin Salman visited Ankara in June 2022. Erdogan’s visit to Jeddah is expected to see the signing of many agreements between the two sides, according to a Saudi official who requested anonymity.