Turkey steps up ties with GCC, ends 3-year row with UAE

There is no need to recall how Turkey and Saudi Arabia clinched the alliance they have built over the past year, especially after the new Saudi King Salman came to the throne, through consecutive high-level visits. President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an paid two important visits to Riyadh last year and King Salman visited Ankara and Istanbul in recent weeks both for a bilateral visit and to join the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). 

Turkey and Saudi Arabia agreed to set up a coordination council during King Salman's talks in Turkey in a bid to take concrete steps to increase and diversify cooperation between the two countries. 

Only 10 days after the summit, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu went to Jeddah and Riyadh to hold talks with senior Saudi leaders, including King Salman, to follow up earlier talks and concretize them. As Çavu?o?lu stated, this coordination council will have eight subcommittees to work in the fields of diplomacy, security, defense industry, trade, economy, investments, energy and education-culture.  

It was also agreed to organize meetings between Turkey and the Gulf Countries' Council at the ministerial level so that this relationship could gain a more structural nature. Deepening economic, trade and energy cooperation with the oil and natural gas rich GCC countries would surely be to the advantage of Turkey.  

After he concluded his talks with Saudi leaders, Çavu?o?lu moved on to Abu Dhabi on April 25, in a landmark visit symbolizing reconciliation between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

This visit marked the first high-level political visit from Turkey to the UAE since May 2013, after bilateral ties were seriously damaged due to the parties' different stances regarding the military...