ANKARA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Turkey and Israel will discuss steps to improve cooperation during talks between the two countries’ presidents next week in Ankara, the Turkish presidency said on Saturday, as the regional rivals work to repair long-strained ties.
Israel and Turkey mutually expelled ambassadors in 2018 and relations have remained prickly, but Ankara has recently worked to improve relations with several countries in the region as part of a charm offensive launched in 2020.
As part of the rapprochement, Israeli President Isaac Herzog will visit in Ankara on March 9-10 at the invitation of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish presidency said.
Erdogan and Herzog will “review all aspects of Turkey-Israel bilateral ties” and “discuss steps that can be taken to improve cooperation,” it said. The two presidents will also hold talks on “recent regional and international developments,” it added.
Herzog’s spokesman said the visit was being coordinated with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, adding it will be the first by an Israeli leader since 2008.
“The two presidents will discuss various bilateral issues, including Israel-Turkey relations and the potential for expanding collaboration,” he said in a statement.
Ankara, which supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has condemned Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and its policy towards Palestinians, while Israel has called on Turkey to drop support for the militant Palestinian group Hamas which runs Gaza.
While Erdogan has spoken to Herzog before, Israel’s presidency is a largely ceremonial role. In November, he spoke to Bennett, the first such call to an Israeli prime minister in years.
Last month, Turkey said it would not abandon its commitment to a Palestinian state in order to broker closer ties with Israel. Erdogan has said energy cooperation could be on the agenda during talks with Herzog.
(This story has been refiled to correct ‘president’ to ‘leader’ in paragraph five)
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Editing by Christina Fincher)
