Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan started his Gulf tour on Monday, which includes Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar.
During his tour, Erdogan looks to attract foreign investment to support the embattled economy.
“During our visit, we will have the opportunity to personally follow up on the support these countries will provide to Turkey,” Erdogan recently told the Turkish press.
He added: “They’ve already expressed that they were ready to make serious investments in Turkey during my previous contacts. I hope we will finalize these during this visit.”
Senior Turkish officials told Reuters that they seek to secure direct investments of nearly $10 billion (€8.9 billion) from the Gulf states shortly after Erdogan’s trip, and then between $25 billion and $30 billion in total over a longer period of time.
The visit follows Erdogan’s reelection victory in May to extend his rule into a third decade. Since then, he altered some economic policies in a bid to end a cost-of-living crisis and looked to enhance relations with the Arab world’s petro states.
