Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and his Austrian counterpart Alexander Schallenberg met in Vienna on Friday as the top diplomats of the two countries looked forward to enhancing bilateral relations.
Expressing gratitude to Austria for their support after the massive earthquakes that shook Türkiye's southern regions on Feb. 6, Çavuşoğlu on Twitter said the two countries "will further increase economic, trade and cultural cooperation." He also said that they have "exchanged views on developments related to Ukraine, Syria and the South Caucasus."
The twin earthquakes on Feb. 6 in southern Türkiye killed more than 50,000 people in the country and prompted international solidarity. The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 quakes struck 11 Turkish provinces, namely Adana, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Elazığ, Hatay, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Şanlıurfa. Around 14 million people in Türkiye have been affected by the quakes, as well as thousands of others in northern Syria.
Relations between the two countries were strained during the tenure of Sebastian Kurz, who pursued a hostile policy towards Türkiye as part of his right-wing agenda.
With the decision of Kurz to end his active political career at the end of 2021 due to a corruption investigation against him, the change in power had a positive impact on Türkiye-Austria relations. With Türkiye's role as a mediator in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its support of the parties coming together at the negotiation table, called the "Istanbul Process," after the war started, international public attention focused on Ankara. The Vienna administration too did not remain indifferent to this development.
Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen spoke over the phone with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on March 1, 2022, and discussed the positive developments in bilateral relations and diplomatic solutions to end the war in Ukraine.
Following this development, Schallenberg announced that they supported Türkiye's efforts to achieve peace by participating in the Antalya Diplomacy Forum. Chancellor Karl Nehammer's phone calls with President Erdoğan before and after his visits to Kyiv and Moscow in April contributed to the positive development of bilateral relations.
