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ANKARA, Dubai – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Champions League The final will be held in Istanbul over the weekend and will feature United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed and Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Debeba.
The Emirati president, commonly known by his initials MBZ, was the first foreign head of state Erdogan received one-on-one after his June 3 inauguration, which was attended by dozens of world leaders. The Emirati leader was on a one-day working visit to Istanbul on Saturday, where the two discussed bilateral ties, watched a football match together and walked hand in hand after dining at an Istanbul restaurant.
“We discussed ways to further strengthen the economic cooperation and strategic partnership between our two countries, and ways to promote regional stability for a prosperous future for all,” the UAE president tweeted.
The Turkish president said the two leaders met at Istanbul airport after the UAE president arrived, but gave no further details. A video posted by the Turkish president showed them embracing on the tarmac, where Erdogan presented his UAE president, the Togg, Turkey’s first locally-made electric car.
Erdogan and MBZ watched at the Istanbul Stadium as England’s Manchester City FC, which is controlled by the Abu Dhabi United Development and Investment Group founded by MBZ’s brother Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, fought Italy’s Champions League final between football clubs Inter Milan.
Photos of the stadium released by the Turkish president showed MBZ and Prime Minister Dbeibah of the Libyan government in Tripoli greeting each other warmly on the sidelines of the match.
The encounter is likely to be football diplomacy pushed by Ankara to further the détente between Debeba’s government and Abu Dhabi, which backs Tripoli’s rival in the conflict. The UAE’s stance later softened following Dbeibah’s repeated visits to the UAE.
Ankara and Abu Dhabi support rival sides in Libya’s civil war. Along with Russia, the UAE supports forces in eastern Libya, led by Khalifa Hifter, fighting the country’s government in Tripoli, which is internationally recognized and backed by Turkey. Last week, Turkey’s newly appointed foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, met with the head of Libya’s Supreme Council of State, Khaled Mishri.
Erdogan and MBZ dined at Istanbul restaurants on the city’s European side after the game, which saw City clinching the Champions League trophy with a 1-0 win over Inter Milan. A video showing the two leaders leaving the restaurant holding hands has reverberated on social media platforms.
President Erdogan leaves Floria restaurant hand in hand with UAE leaders. pic.twitter.com/b4d3tj0EJA
— Darkweb Haber (@Darkwebhaber) June 11, 2023
The Emirati leader’s visit comes nearly two weeks after Erdogan was re-elected as Turkey’s president for a third term on May 28 and entered his third decade in power.
After years of a deep freeze, Turkey-UAE relations have made significant progress over the past two years as part of Ankara’s efforts to mend ties with former regional foes including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel and the UAE.
In March, Turkey, the UAE’s sixth largest trading partner, signed a $40 billion trade deal more than five years. Abu Dhabi ratified the deal on May 31, after Erdogan was re-elected.
Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, an Emirati analyst and professor of political science, said the agreement and the ongoing cooperation between the two countries reflected the Emirati president’s foreign policy approach of using personal relationships to develop trust.
“It just shows you how much importance President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed places on friendship and all the strategic aspects of the relationship,” Abdullah told Al-Monitor on Friday ahead of his MBZ visit.
However, relations between Turkey and the UAE, as well as other GCC countries, were affected between 2010 and 2020 by the start of the Arab Spring and later after the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi. In 2016, media outlets close to Erdogan accused the UAE of funding perpetrators of an attempted coup against the Turkish strongman.
Under Erdogan and after the 2011 Arab Spring, Turkey was seen as a major supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood in Tunisia, Egypt and Syria. The group faced backlash and outlawed in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, was ousted in Egypt in 2013 and has been ostracized by the Tunisian government since 2022. Both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have now accepted the country’s ruler, Bashar al-Assad, while Ankara has not.
Turkey also sided with Qatar during the 2017 Gulf dispute, when Doha was blocked by neighbors as they criticized its ties to the Islamist group. The blockade ends in 2021.
Abdullah explained that the UAE-Turkey relationship has gone through several stages, the culmination of which occurred just before the Arab Spring, when Turkey was one of the UAE’s best trading partners.
“Even in times of political competition between the two countries, the economies of both countries [the relationship] Strong and strong,” Abdullah said. After the easing of tensions with Qatar in 2021, UAE launches $10 billion investment fund in Türkiye.
Abdullah explained that the relationship between the UAE and Turkey has undergone a nearly 180-degree turn after the reconciliation in 2021, and he expects the relationship between the two countries to flourish after overcoming this political obstacle.
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