RIYADH: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will start a three-day official visit to Saudi Arabia on Monday to hold political consultations with high-ranking Saudi officials on a range of bilateral, regional and international issues including the Middle East peace process.
Erdogan, who was declared last week winner of the “King Faisal Award for Service to Islam,” dubbed as the Nobel Prize of the Arab world, will hold talks with Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah here on Tuesday, said a Turkish diplomat.
The talks with King Abdullah, the diplomat said, will focus “on bilateral relations as well as regional developments.” The Turkish premier will also address a major business meeting at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry before leaving for Jeddah on Wednesday.
Erdogan will be accompanied by high-ranking Turkish officials including Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Foreign Trade Minister Zafer Çaglayan, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek and Energy Minister Taner Yildiz.
On Wednesday, Erdogan will visit the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and meet the organization’s Turkish Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu. The diplomat said that the Turkish premier’s talks with Saudi officials would focus on major regional and international developments.
He will also exchange views on the main issues the OIC is currently tackling. His visit to the Kingdom comes just weeks after Davutoglu’s talks in Riyadh with King Abdullah and Saudi officials on Jan. 2-3.
During that visit Davutoglu was received by Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal; the two foreign ministers discussed the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and called for a stern stance against Israel to convince it to take steps for peace in the Middle East.
Erdogan, who will be flying from the UAE to Riyadh, attended and delivered a speech at the opening session of the third World Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi on Monday.
Saudi Arabia and Turkey are exerting efforts to restart the Middle East peace negotiations as per the UN provisions and the Arab initiative.
