Turkish, Saudi finance, trade ministers meet to discuss cooperation

Türkiye’s Treasury and Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati met with Saudi Arabian Commerce Minister Majid bin Abdullah Al Qasabi in Istanbul on Sunday and mentioned bilateral relations.

Nebati, in a Twitter publish, mentioned the assembly with the Saudi commerce minister was very productive.

“Throughout our assembly, we evaluated financial, industrial and monetary cooperation between our nations,” Nebati famous.

“We agreed with the minister to additional develop our cooperation in these areas,” he added.

Türkiye and Saudi Arabia have this yr moved to fix ties following years of stress, which escalated particularly after the 2018 homicide of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul Consulate.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Saudi Arabia in April, the primary high-level go to in years. His journey was adopted by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s (MBS) journey to Türkiye in June.

The 2 leaders additionally met final week on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.

Nebati’s assembly with the Saudi minister got here as a big delegation led by Saudi Arabia’s funding minister is predicted to reach in Türkiye subsequent month

In the meantime, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye are presently discussing a $5 billion deposit on the Central Financial institution of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT), in keeping with a latest assertion by a spokesperson from the Saudi Ministry of Finance.

“We’re in remaining discussions to make a $5 billion deposit with the central financial institution of (Türkiye),” the spokesperson mentioned in an emailed response to a Reuters question.

Türkiye’s Treasury and Finance Ministry later confirmed that Saudi Arabia has reached the ultimate stage in its $5 billion deposit account with the CBRT.

Ankara has been widening its choices for overseas assets to backstop its coverage of supporting the lira foreign money by balancing the economic system’s provide and demand for foreign exchange.

The CBRT already has a complete of $28 billion in foreign money swap offers with the United Arab Emirates, China, Qatar and South Korea and bankers calculate round $23 billion to $24 billion are already within the Turkish central financial institution’s reserves.