Erdogan: Turkey and Israel to start joint energy exploration

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey announced this evening that he had agreed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel and Turkey would begin joint energy exploration. “Not only will we start operating energy pipelines to Turkey, but also from Turkey to Europe,” Erdogan added. He also said that he had agreed with Netanyahu that first the latter would visit Turkey, and that he would then pay a reciprocal visit to Israel, and that he had discussed with Netanyahu the formation of a ministerial level mechanism for expanding cooperation between the two countries.

Yesterday’s meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly was the first for seven years. “Our ties are strengthening”, Netanyahu said afterwards. He was accompanied at all his meetings at the UN by Mossad chief David (“Dadi”) Barnea. Erdogan was accompanied by Barnea’s opposite number in Turkey, head of the Turkish National Intelligence Organization Ibrahim Kalin; Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan, who was Kalin’s predecessor at the National Intelligence Organization and is one of the strongest figures in the Turkish government; Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Dr. Alparslan Bayraktar; the spokesperson for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party Omer Celik; Erdogan’s foreign policy and defense adviser Akif Chagatai Kilic; and another very important figure in Ankara, the head of the Communication Department of the Turkish Presidency, Fakhreddin Alton.

The meeting covered regional and international matters and also economic issues, particularly Turkey’s ambition of exporting Israeli gas to Europe via its territory, and latest developments on the Palestinian front. Erdogan and Netanyahu also discussed moves towards normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on September 21, 2023.

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