Qatar and Turkey are set to hold sixth session of bilateral supreme strategic committee this month to enhance their strategic ties with a signing of a number of new agreements in various sectors.
The committee which was established in 2014 has held five meetings so far and signed 50 agreements. The relationship between Doha and Ankara is rooted in decades of close political, cultural and trade ties.
The preparatory ministerial meeting for the sixth session of the Qatar-Turkey Supreme Strategic Committee took place on Thursday in Antalya. The State of Qatar was represented in the meeting by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. The Republic of Turkey was represented by Minister of Foreign Affairs, H E Mevlut Cavusoglu.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs noted the strengthening of bilateral ties to the level of a complementary partnership under the patronage of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and President of the Republic of Turkey H E Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He said he looked forward to a meeting that would enhance the strategic bilateral relations, which have grown over many decades, even further to strengthen the complementary partnership in all fields whether in security, politics, military, investment, development, and culture among other fields.
He said that establishing a Turkish free economic zone in the State of Qatar will enhance ties further and create a platform for the Turkish investor to access markets in India, Asia, and Africa. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs added that the security and political challenges that the Middle-East and the world face, require constant consultation to face those challenges, expressing satisfaction with the agreement between the two sides on regional and international issues, and stressing that they will continue to support regional and international efforts to establish international peace and security, counter-terrorism, and resolve conflicts peacefully.
Recently, in an interaction with media, Ambassador of Turkey to Qatar, H E Mehmet Mustafa Goksu said that the trade ties between the two countries have increased tremendously over the past years, and currently more than 500 Turkish companies are operating in Qatar.
The total value of the projects undertaken by Turkish contracting companies since 2002 is $18.5bn. Similarly, Qatari investment and the footprint of Qatari companies in Turkey has also increased as currently 179 Qatari firms are engaged in various sectors in Turkey and the Qatari investments in Turkey have risen to $22bn. The volume of bilateral trade has jumped from $340m in 2010 to over $2bn in 2019.
