Following President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Saudi Arabia, which was intended to entice foreign investment, Riyadh announced Tuesday that a Turkish company will supply drones to Saudi Arabia.
Erdogan and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met on Monday in the Red Sea city of Jeddah and signed a number of contracts, including the drone agreement, according to the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
Erdogan was in Saudi Arabia to begin a Gulf trip in order to rally support for Turkey’s struggling economy after winning a second five-year term in May’s elections.
Later on Tuesday, the Turkish president is anticipated in the nearby country of Qatar. Erdogan and Prince Mohammed spoke about “prospects for joint cooperation” in their meeting after attending a Saudi-Turkish business event on Monday in Jeddah, according to SPA.
According to the article, the two presidents inked cooperation agreements in the areas of energy, direct investment, defense, and media.
Additionally, it stated that representatives from Saudi Arabia signed “two contracts with the Turkish company Baykar,” which produces drones and is co-owned by one of Erdogan’s sons-in-law.
The privately held company’s drones have been utilized in Ukraine, Libya, and Azerbaijan.
Saudi Arabia “will acquire drones with the aim of enhancing the readiness of the kingdom’s armed forces and bolstering its defence and manufacturing capabilities”, Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman said on Tuesday.
He did not specify the value of the deal or the type of drone the kingdom is looking to procure.
An Arab diplomat in Riyadh, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the press, said it was Baykar’s TB2 model.
Kuwait claimed to have reached a $367 million arrangement last month to purchase TB2 drones.
Erdogan’s trip to Saudi Arabia this week marks his second since Ankara and Riyadh recently repaired their frayed ties following the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate in 2018.
By aggressively pursuing the matter at the time, starting an inquiry, and informing the international media of the grisly specifics of the death, Turkey infuriated Saudi Arabia.
However, with relations improving, Prince Mohammed visited Turkey in June of last year, and Erdogan visited Saudi Arabia in April 2022.
Erdogan is currently in the Gulf as Turkey struggles to recover from a currency crisis and skyrocketing inflation that have severely harmed its economy.
Saudi Arabia made a $5 billion deposit in the Turkish central bank in March.
