Natural gas cooperation is among the vital steps Turkey and Israel can take in a bid to mend ties, and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett could visit Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday.
Earlier in March, Erdoğan said he believed Israeli President Isaac Herzog's 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.
"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.
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.
The common goal of Turkey and Israel is to revive bilateral political dialogue based on common interests, Erdoğan said and underlined that the historic visit of Herzog will be a "new turning point" in relations.
Herzog for his part said the aim is to lay foundations for the development of friendly relations between Turkey, Israel, and the peoples of the two countries.
"Israel and Turkey can and should engage in a cooperation that will impact this region we all call home," Herzog said.
Herzog's visit is seen as a step toward moving from a period of strained ties to improved relations with Turkey. Erdoğan has said the visit will herald a "new era" and that the two countries could work together to carry Israeli natural gas to Europe, reviving an idea first discussed more than 20 years ago. Plans for a subsea pipeline from the Eastern Mediterranean to Europe, excluding Turkey, have stalled after the United States expressed misgivings in January.
In recent months, the two regional powers have sought a rapprochement after nearly a decade of broken ties. Turkey has recently been working to improve relations with several countries in the region as part of a normalization process launched in 2020. Turkey has said it would not abandon its commitment to Palestine in order to broker closer ties with Israel.
