Turkey’s finance chief heralds $50.7 billion deals with UAE as Erdogan tours Gulf nations

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey and the United Arab Emirates have signed deals worth $50.7 billion as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rounded off a three-country tour of the Gulf.

“Today we have witnessed the signings of several strategic agreements and (memoranda of understandings) worth a total of $50.7 billion to further cement ties between the UAE and Turkey,” Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek tweeted late Wednesday.

The agreements involve export financing, earthquake bonds, energy, defense and other sectors.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited the United Arab Emirates as part of a swing through the Arab Gulf states focused on energy and commerce.

The head of this year’s United Nations climate talks is calling for governments and businesses to tackle global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in all regions and sectors if they want to stop the planet from passing a key temperature limit agreed on more than seven years ago.

A popular online influencer has been arrested in Dubai over a satirical TikTok video in which he portrays a brash Emirati on a spending spree inside a luxury car showroom.

The United Arab Emirates says it will give $15 million to help rebuild the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

Erdogan embarked on a tour of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE on Tuesday, seeking trade and investment opportunities for Turkey’s floundering economy.

Inflation in Turkey was 38% last month, down from a high of 85% in October, while the budget deficit widened to $8.37 billion in June, seven times the level of a year earlier.

Ankara has repaired ties with Riyadh and Abu Dhabi over the last two years following a decadelong split with the Arab states.

Timothy Ash, an emerging markets analyst at London’s BlueBay Asset Management, said the deals represented a “new strategic relationship between Turkey and the Gulf states.”

Describing a “real triumph for Erdogan and his team,” Ash said similar commitments from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait could help Ankara as it begins a period of economic reform that embraces more orthodox policy-making.