Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York with the Turkish president talking about improving relations between the two countries.

After more than a decade of bilateral tensions, relations between Turkey and Israel have been rewarmed with a series of visits by top officials, including Jewish state president Isaac Herzog in Ankara last year. Erdogan also congratulated Netanyahu after his victory in Israel’s December election.

In yesterday’s meeting “the two leaders they decided to continue promoting bilateral relations in trade, economy and energy“, announced the office of the Israeli Prime Minister.

The two leaders also discussed “regional and international issues, including the establishment of Israeli-Saudi relations.”

The Sunni kingdom does not recognize Israel and did not join the so-called Abraham Accords concluded in 2020 under the auspices of the US. With these agreements, Israel smoothed its relations with two of the Saudi kingdom’s neighbors, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, except for Sudan and Morocco.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly stated that sticks to the Arab League’s decades-old position of not establishing formal relations with the Jewish state if the Palestinian issue is not resolved. However, possible scenarios have proliferated recently for a possible agreement between Riyadh and Israel.

Yesterday, Erdogan and Netanyahu also discussed “the latest developments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” according to a statement from the Turkish presidency.

Turkish-Israeli relations deteriorated in 2010 after a deadly attack by Israeli forces on a Turkish ship carrying aid to the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu is expected to meet US President Joe Biden later today in New York. It is the first meeting between the two men since the Israeli leader returned to the prime ministership.