Turkish-Saudi alliance in place

On Feb 28, 2015, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an became one of the first regional leaders to visit Riyadh to hold extensive talks with Saudi Arabia's new leader, King Salman, who was crowned in January of that year. Since then, the relationship between the two countries has shown a steady progress through consecutive high-level talks. 

Erdo?an made another trip to the Saudi Kingdom in late December 2015, which was followed by prime ministerial and foreign ministerial visits that helped elevate the level of ties to a more strategic category.
 
A high-level strategic cooperation council established between the two countries created new areas of collaboration, especially in the fields of military, defense, trade and foreign policy. 

King Salman's visit to Turkey can be seen as a follow-up to this process of forming a strong alliance and further aligning the foreign policy priorities of Ankara and Riyadh. 

So it is not a coincidence that Ankara has decided to decorate King Salman with Turkey's highest state medal in recognition of the close ties between the two countries, just a year since the Saudi leader took the throne. 
However, this reunion in Ankara is more about regional and international policies than bilateral preoccupations. 

First, King Salman arrived in Ankara after a five-day trip to Egypt, where he renewed the long-lasting alliance between Cairo and Riyadh. 

Second, his visit comes on the occasion of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) summit, to take place in Istanbul on April 14 and 15 with the participation of around 30 leaders of from different Islamic countries, including Iranian President Hasan Rouhani. 

Third, these events coincide with the international community's...