Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday hosted Saudi King Salman at his presidential palace in Ankara, extending a lavish welcome that underlined the growing importance of Ankara-Riyadh ties.
Erdogan gave King Salman Turkey’s highest honour for a foreign leader and praised his role in developing relations between the two overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim powers since succeeding his half brother Abdullah in 2015.
“The fact that Turkey and Saudi Arabia are deepening their co-operation in every field, with your support, is an opportunity for regional and global peace,” Erdogan told King Salman.
“Since the day you came to the throne, you made great contributions to relations between our two countries.”
Saudi Arabia under King Salman has emerged as one of Erdogan’s key allies with the two countries in particular sharing a common vision on the Syria conflict.
Erdogan greeted Salman at the vast new presidential palace with an honour guard of Turkish soldiers as well as 16 costumed warriors representing the various Turkic empires in history.
Erdogan on Monday personally welcomed Salman off his plane at Ankara airport, in an unprecedented departure from normal protocol.
The awarding of the Order of State, the highest honour presented by Turkey to foreign heads of state, was only the second time Erdogan had given out the decoration during his presidency.
Saudi Arabia and Turkey both believe the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad is the key to solving the Syrian conflict and back rebel groups fighting his regime.
The talks took place a day before negotiations in search of peace in Syria were due to resume in Geneva with a truce largely observed since February 27 under strain.
In February, Turkey began hosting Saudi jets and military personnel at its Incirlik air base to join the air campaign against Islamic State militants.
Erdogan also backed Saudi Arabia in a diplomatic crisis with Iran over Riyadh’s execution of a Shia cleric in January.
Salman now heads to Istanbul for the summit of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) on Thursday and Friday.