There are important steps being taken to fix ties with Saudi Arabia, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Thursday.
"We didn't have a negative attitude towards Saudi Arabia in terms of normalizing relations, either commercially, economically, or politically," the minister told Turkish news broadcaster A Haber in a televised interview.
Underlining that steps are being taken to revive ties between the two countries, he said: "I can say that concrete steps will be taken on this issue in the coming period."
Çavuşoğlu said last week that constructive discussions were held with his Saudi Arabian counterpart and they agreed to improve ties, as the two countries work to repair their strained regional relations.
Speaking to state media after a meeting of the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Islamabad, Çavuşoğlu said his discussions with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud had been "very beneficial and goal-oriented" and would help in normalizing ties.
Turkey is engaged in an effort to mend its frayed ties through intensified diplomacy with regional powers, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, after years of tensions. Erdoğan had reiterated that Turkey hopes to maximize cooperation with Egypt and Gulf nations "on a win-win basis."
Ties between Ankara and Riyadh have been troubled since the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by a Saudi hit squad at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul. Following Turkish demands for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and other officials to be prosecuted, Riyadh imposed an unofficial boycott on goods from Turkey. However, Ankara and Riyadh have in recent months attempted to repair some diplomatic damage after a decade of tension.
Çavuşoğlu also told Turkish broadcaster A Haber, he would travel to Israel and Palestine with Energy Minister Fatih Dönmez in mid-May and would discuss the appointment of ambassadors with his Israeli counterpart during the visit.
A possible gas pipeline project between Turkey and Israel is not possible in the short-term and building an alternative system to cut Russian dependence will not happen quickly, he added.
Turkey and Israel have in recent months been working to mend their long-strained ties, and energy has emerged as a potential area of cooperation. Turkey has recently been working to improve relations with several countries in the region as part of a normalization process launched in 2020.
The regional rivals expelled ambassadors in 2018 and have often traded barbs over the Palestinian conflict. Turkey has said it would not abandon its commitment to Palestine in order to broker closer ties with Israel.
Amid the normalization process between the two countries, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett could visit Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said recently.
"In this process, Israeli Prime Minister Bennett may come as well. With his arrival too, there may be a chance to start a new era in Turkey-Israel ties," Erdoğan told reporters on a return flight from a NATO summit in Brussels.
"One of the most important steps we can take together for bilateral ties, I believe, would be cooperation in natural gas," he added, and said details of the cooperation would be discussed later during a visit by his foreign and energy ministers to Israel.
Earlier in March, Erdoğan said he believed Israeli President Isaac Herzog's recent visit to Turkey would be a turning point in the long-strained relations between the regional powers and that Ankara was ready to cooperate in the Eastern Mediterranean with a focus on the energy sector.
Herzog visited Turkey earlier this month to meet Erdoğan, the first visit by an Israeli head of state since 2007, as the countries seek to mend fractured ties.
