Turkey and UAE eye further trade cooperation

Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will make more efforts to enhance economic relations in the coming period, the head of a business association said Thursday.

Nearly 60 businesspeople as well as the trade ministers of both countries came together in the Turkish city of Istanbul to take new steps to further trade cooperation in areas including energy, health, infrastructure, food, finance, chemistry, automotive and digital technology.

Nail Olpak, the head of Turkey's Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK), said in a statement that the UAE is eager to increase the sectoral diversity of its economy within the framework of the UAE Vision 2040 program.

"Here, especially in sectors such as housing and transportation and infrastructure, the Turkish business world wants to take advantage of the serious opportunities that arise," he said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's two-day visit to Abu Dhabi on Feb. 13 marked another substantial turning point in previously sour relations between Turkey and the UAE as both countries seek to end a feud that has for long defined the geopolitical arena of the Middle East and North Africa.

The two countries signed 13 agreements in various fields during Erdoğan's visit to the Gulf country.