Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu is set to visit Israel on Wednesday, marking the first time a Turkish foreign minister has visited the country in 15 years as the two nations continue to mend ties.
Çavuşoğlu had announced earlier that he planned to visit Israel on May 25 to meet with his Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid. He also plans to visit Palestine a day before his Israel visit.
Turkey and Israel have in recent weeks been working to mend their long-strained ties and energy has emerged as a potential area of cooperation.
President Tayyip Erdoğan said in March that he was "very, very hopeful" for energy cooperation with Israel, and he hoped to discuss the issue with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
Ties between Turkey and Israel froze over after the death of 10 civilians in an Israeli raid on a Turkish flotilla carrying aid for the Gaza Strip in 2010. The two countries once again expelled their ambassadors in 2018 after another bitter falling-out and relations since remained tense. In recent months, however, the two countries have been working on a rapprochement.
Turkey, which supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has said it believes a rapprochement with Israel will also help find a solution to the issue but that it would not abandon commitments to Palestinians for better ties with Israel.
