Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will be in London on Wednesday for his bilateral-level visit. He will meet his counterpart David Lammy and is expected to relay Türkiye’s message against a war in its immediate region.
Fidan will also highlight Ankara’s readiness to launch negotiations to expand the existing Free Trade Agreement with the United Kingdom, media outlets reported on Monday. In addition, ministers will discuss new fields of cooperation including on energy and transportation, along with joint steps the two sides can take on defense industry and cooperation on counterterrorism.
Türkiye’s top diplomat, who is part of an international group working for a cease-fire in Gaza and a lasting solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict, will also highlight the challenges to the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza where a humanitarian crisis affecting Palestinians deepened.
Türkiye has been a staunch critic of Israeli aggression which claimed the lives of thousands of Palestinians since last October, unlike the United Kingdom. Fidan will reiterate Türkiye’s concerns about Israel’s repeated violation of international laws and targeting the United Nations and its institutions, and will make a call for the sides to caution against Israel’s goal of expanding the conflict to the entire region, in the wake of attacks targeting Lebanon and Iran.
Lammy visited Türkiye as shadow foreign secretary in March while the last visit by a British foreign minister to Ankara was by then secretary David Cameron in January.
Türkiye and the U.K. are allies and established a “strategic partnership” in 2007.
