Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan left on Wednesday for Spain on a two-day official visit as the first step in a tour of Europe that will also take him to Italy to attend the G7 summit, to which he has been personally invited by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni: a tour in which the Turkish leader wants to redouble Ankara’s efforts to achieve international recognition of the Palestinian state and an end to the war in Gaza.
His two-day visit will begin with a personal audience with King Felipe VI, according to Turkish newspapers such as Sabah; Erdoğan and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will then chair the 8th Spain-Turkey Intergovernmental Summit tomorrow, Thursday: a continuation of the first high-level bilateral summit organised by both countries in 2009, at a time when Erdoğan was Prime Minister and Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was President of the Spanish government, both being the driving force behind the so-called Alliance of Civilisations, at the time. The VII summit between Turkey and Spain was held in 2021 in Ankara.
As on previous occasions, the Spanish-Turkish Intergovernmental Summit will seek to strengthen strategic, political, cultural and economic ties between Spain and Turkey, two important partners and allies in the Mediterranean. Both Erdoğan and Sánchez will attend the summit in Madrid accompanied by several ministers from their governments; on the Turkish side, Minister of Family and Social Services Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar, Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Şimşek – who already met with businessmen in Spain last December -, Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry İbrahim Yumaklı, and Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat, are expected to attend.
Also part of the entourage accompanying the Turkish president – in addition to his wife, Emine Erdoğan – will be Deputy Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (parliament) Celal Adan, Chairman of the Office of Administrative Affairs of the Presidency of the Republic Metin Kıratlı, the head of the National Intelligence Agency (MİT) İbrahim Kalın, the Presidency’s chief advisor on foreign and security policy Akif Çağatay Kılıç, and the Presidency’s deputy director of communications Çağatay Özdemir.
Relations between Spain and Turkey date back to the 16th century
During the meeting in Madrid, the two countries are expected to sign some 15 bilateral agreements in various fields, including trade, culture and sport. However, during the summit Erdoğan is also expected to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the recognition of Palestine, as well as international efforts to promote the two-state solution as the only way to achieve peace in the Middle East. Precisely, Erdoğan phoned Sánchez to express his gratitude when the Spanish government announced its recognition of the Palestinian state a few weeks ago.
In addition to Spain, Turkey regularly holds high-level bilateral summits with Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Algeria and Morocco. In the case of Spain, although the first summit dates back to 2009, bilateral relations between the two countries date back to the 16th century, when in the time of the Ottoman Empire the two nations exchanged ambassadors after ending their disputes. In 2005 a new important step was taken when Erdoğan and Zapatero’s jointly sponsored the Alliance of Civilisations, a UN-backed initiative to build bridges of understanding and dialogue between the West and the Muslim world.
After participating in the bilateral summit, Erdoğan will conclude his visit to Spain and head to Italy, where he is scheduled to attend the G-7 summit on 14 June at the invitation of the Italian government, which has also requested that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates attend. During the summit, the Turkish president is scheduled to hold several bilateral meetings with the leaders and heads of state of the G-7 member states to discuss the situation in Gaza.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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