Saudi Arabia‘s crown prince met with The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday to improve relations, in his first visit since the 2018, when the journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered, which created a distance between the two Sunni nations. The Saudi state news agency published images of the Turkish leader and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman embracing. US intelligence officials determined that the Saudi ruler approved the plot against Khashoggi, an allegation that the Saudi Royal Family deny. The leaders “reviewed the Saudi–Turkish relations and ways to develop them in all fields,” according to the SPA. Turkish state media also published pictures showing a separate meeting with King Salman, the father of the crown prince. The trip occurred as Turkey is attempting to raise financial support from the Gulf nations due to an economic crisis fuelled by soaring inflation and the collapse of its currency.
Erdogan stated that he hoped to “launch a new era” of bilateral relations before flying from Istanbul to Jeddah, where some roads were lined with Turkish and Saudi flags. “”We believe enhancing cooperation in areas including defence and finance is in our mutual interest,” Erdogan said. In October of 2018, Saudi agents killed Khashoggi, a journalist who had turned critical of the government, and then dismembered his body in the kingdom‘s consulate in Istanbul. To this day his remains have not been found. The murder not only isolated Saudi Arabia, but also created diplomatic difficulties for Prince Mohammed, while escalating an already existing rivalry between Riyadh and Ankara.
