Turkey and Israel will seek ways to mend once-close relations and seek to overcome years of strained ties as their presidents meet for the first time in more more than a decade to discuss steps to improve cooperation.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog arrive in Ankara on Wednesday on a two-day trip that both sides say will touch on potential areas of cooperation and exploring ways to deepen bilateral relations.
Over the years of tensions, the countries maintained trade links, which remained at high levels and even hit a record last year.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Herzog should review all aspects of Turkey-Israel bilateral relations and discuss steps which can be taken to improve cooperation, in particular in energy, trade and security.
The presidents will also hold talks on recent regional and international developments, especially from Russia invasion of Ukraine, where the two nations have risen to power up diplomacy to mediate and help end the conflict.
trade at record high
Trade between Turkey and Israel has increased over the past five years, before hitting a record $8.4 billion last yearaccording official data, up from $6.2 billion in 2020.
Exports to Israel surged more more than 35% year-over-year at $6.4 billion last yeara record absolute, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat). Imports jumped nearly 37% to $2.1 billion.
Israel is one of countries Turkey records a trade surplus with and was its ninth largest export market.
Erdoğan said the visit will herald a “new era” and that the two countries could work together, especially in transporting Israeli natural gas to Europe, reviving an idea first discussed more than 20 years ago.
Turkey and Israel previously tried to cooperate on energy resources, but those talks never got very far.
Herzog last week called Turkey “a very important neighbor of ours,” stressing that the country has a “tremendous impact on our lives in several areas. »
“We must… if possible to lower the tension and move on in a true dialogue that would certainly include problems of the climate and the economy,” he said on margins of his visit to Greek Cyprus.
Energy cooperation
the head of the Israeli firm pumping gas from a giant field in the Eastern Mediterranean said the company could supply Turkey if it provided infrastructure, although it did not comment on Erdoğan’s proposal to link it to Europe.
“Our position has always been clear. If you want gas, great. We’re ready to give. You build the pipeline to us and we will supply gas,” Yossi Abu, Managing Director of NewMed Energy, was quoted by Reuters as saying at an investor conference two weeks ago.
Erdogan last month expressed Turkey’s interest in resume talks with Israel on using son natural gas and son shipment to Europe.
“We can use Israeli natural gas in our country and beyond using that, on can also to hire in a joint effort on son passing through Europe,” he said.
Erdoğan said energy cooperation could be on the agenda during the talks with Herzog.
Mediterranean gas supply could reduce European dependence on Russian gas. From plans for an undersea gas pipeline that would transport Israeli gas from the eastern Mediterranean to Europe via Greek Cyprus and Greece to Europe, excluding Turkey, stalled after US expresses doubts in January.
Turkey has long opposed the project and stressed that any regime aimed at removing the rights of Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) in the Eastern Mediterranean will fail.
The EastMed pipeline had also enjoyed the support of the former Trump Administration in the United States However, the Biden administration, in an apparent U-turn, in January expressed doubts about the project citing concerns over its economic viability and environmental costs.
Erdoğan said that the United States had withdrawn its support because the project makes no economic sense, reiterating son view that such a project “can not work without Turkey.
The 1,900 kilometers (1,180 miles) project initially expected to carry 10 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas one year. But he remains on unclear if the 6 billion euro ($6.82 billion) program will ever continue.
It would transport gas from Israeli and Greek Cyprus to Greece and into European gas network via Italy. But regional politics could well sabotage such plans.
Turkey imports the most of son energy but has announced Discovery of 540 bcm of natural gas in the Black Sea he hopes to extract next year.
Reconciliation
Herzog’s visit marks a major thaw in links, although son post is largely ceremonial and all concrete steps towards a reconciliation will require the approval of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
the last the visit of an Israeli president to Turkey was in 2007 and the last travel by one prime minister came the next year. Erdoğan and Bennett spoke in November, the first Phone call in years.
Visit comes amid Turkey’s efforts to mend frayed relations with many countries in the regionan initiative that resulted in Erdoğan’s announcement in January that he had invited Herzog for talks.
Cratered relationships in 2010 both countries withdrew their ambassadors after the deaths of 10 civilians in an Israeli raid on a Turkish flotilla trying to break through an Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian aid.
Diplomatic links hit a stocking in 2018 when Turkey recalled son ambassador to israel again following the United States decision to relocate son embassy in Jerusalem.
Ankara, which supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has condemned the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and its policy towards the Palestinians, while Israel called on Turkey to drop support for the Palestinian group Hamas which runs Gaza.
Despite the rapprochement, Turkey reigned out giving up son commitment to supporting Palestinian state.
