President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is in Kuwait on an official two-day visit beginning Monday upon the invitation of Kuwaiti Emir Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah to focus on cementing bilateral ties in trade and regional developments. As officials from Kuwait's Ministry of Foreign Affairs told reporters of Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) on Thursday, "Much of the bilateral talks will also tackle the developments in the region, especially the crisis in Syria and the situation in Yemen."

As the two states display convergent attitudes on regional issues by giving support for the end of the civil war and a regime change in Syria, last month at the third Syria donor conference in Kuwait, where a total of $3.8 billion was collected, Turkey was extolled for spending around $5 billion for the 1.7 million Syrian refugees it has. Besides regional developments, bilateral relations on trade and business issues constitute an important part in the agenda for the visit. According to Kuwaiti officials' statements, a forum for Turkish and Kuwaiti businesspeople will be held simultaneous with Erdoğan's visit in an attempt to ameliorate economic relations, particularly between the private sectors in the two countries. As a matter of fact, the Presidency released a press statement on Tuesday saying the "current and potential projects regarding the development and advancement of our cooperation in trade, construction business and defense industry areas will also be evaluated in the meetings."

The Joint Economic Commission between the two countries meet regularly and the Turkish-Kuwaiti Business Council has become a significant platform to develop economic ties since its first meeting during then President Abdullah Gül's visit to Kuwait in 2009. According to Turkish officials, while Kuwaiti foreign direct investment in Turkey reached $1.56 billion, the Turkish private sector has been mostly involved in construction, transportation and advanced technology sectors in Kuwait.