Ankara and Abu Dhabi will continue to strive to send humanitarian aid to Gaza and facilitate humanitarian aid to the war-stricken strip, UAE Ambassador to Ankara Saeed Thani Hareb al-Dhaheri said Tuesday.
Speaking on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to the UAE last week, where he met with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ambassador said: “They discussed how to end the war as well as strategies to stop the bloodshed of innocent women and children in Gaza. We will continue humanitarian aid to the region.”
Gaza is vital for both Türkiye and the UAE, al-Dhaheri told journalists at a gathering at the embassy in Ankara. The two countries are also keen on preventing the conflict from further spreading to the greater region.
Israel launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip following a Hamas attack on Oct. 7. The ensuing Israeli bombardment has killed nearly 29,092 and injured about 69,028 with mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the U.N.
Al-Dhaheri also spoke on bilateral ties, which were part of talks in the recent meeting between the leaders.
Reiterating that three years have passed since the two countries entered the normalization period, the ambassador said: “The United Arab Emirates and its strong leadership has worked hard to strengthen the economic partnership between the two countries and this led to a significant increase in the number of agreements and memorandums of understanding signed.”
“Additionally, an important increase has been witnessed in the high-level meetings that reflect the joint decisiveness in strengthening bilateral ties.”
He said that both countries, especially Türkiye, worked on analysing thoroughly the potential cooperation areas in the field of green investment. “This includes renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable transportation.”
Al-Dhaheri reminded that in March last year, the two countries signed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) which aims to increase the bilateral trade volume from $20 billion to $40 billion in the upcoming five years.
Similarly, the ambassador also voiced determination to further cooperation in the field of the defense industry. Türkiye has already sold 20 of its pioneering armed drones to the UAE.
The strategic relations between Türkiye and the UAE are witnessing great prosperity, with accelerated and escalating cooperation and close fraternal ties between the two countries leaders as the two achieve a growing strategic partnership in record time.
