On Wednesday, Middle East Eye reported that Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu plans to travel to Saudi Arabia on 11 May, marking the first high-level visit to be made by Turley to the Kingdom in the last four years.
The visit is said to have been planned during the phone conversation, on Tuesday, between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia. During the phone call, it was announced that the two leaders discussed bilateral ties and future cooperation.
The Middle East Eye’s report added that Turkey’s presidential spokesperson and chief policy advisor Ibrahim Kalın contacted his Saudi counterparts in an effort to defuse the tensions that diverge the two regional powers from each other.
During the trip to the Saudi Kingdom, it is expected that Çavuşoğlu will attempt to heal bilateral ties while also addressing key differences and complaints, including the recent closure of Turkish schools in the country. The Turkish Ministry of Education announced last week that it was informed of the closure of eight schools by the end of the current school year by Saudi authorities.
Relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia had hit a low point since the murder of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The killing is said to have been ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to a US intelligence report declassified in late February 2021.
