Ankara/London, 3 September 2022 (TDI): President of Turkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, spoke on phone with the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (UK), Boris Johnson, to discuss Türkiye-UK relations and regional matters.
President @RTErdogan spoke by phone with Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom.
The call addressed the Türkiye-UK relations and regional matters.
— Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye (@trpresidency) September 2, 2022
In the telephone conversation, President Erdogan noted that the countries established a close dialogue during Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s tenure.
Moreover, they improved bilateral relations on the basis of mutual respect and understanding. In addition, President Erdogan expressed his hope to further develop the relationship between the countries.
Turkish President said, “The relationship between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Turkiye will grow deeper and develop in every field in the period ahead with the same common sense and foresight.”
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UK- Turkiye Relations
UK- Turkiye relations have a historically rich background, based on shared values, mutual understanding, goodwill, and mutual respect.
The United Kingdom (UK) was one of the first countries with which the Ottoman Empire established regular diplomatic relations in 1583. The relationship also contained confrontation prior to 1926.
The relations were marked with friendly gestures after high official visits between countries. The relations gained impetus by the visit of Queen Elizabeth to Turkiye in 2008.
Furthermore, the relations improved with the visit of UK former Prime Minister David Cameron to Turkiye in July 2010. The “2010 Strategic Partnership Document” was also signed during the visit.
The state visit to the UK by Türkiye’s former President, Abdullah Gul in November 2011 confirmed at the highest level the mutual willingness to further enhance bilateral relations.
The UK is also one of the developed countries with which Türkiye has a trade surplus. Turkiye-UK bilateral trade volume was 13,9 billion USD in 2011. Similarly, the bilateral trade volume between the two countries stood at 16 billion 157 million USD, in 2017.
The total amount of direct investments from the United Kingdom to Türkiye in the period of 2002-2017 is 9 billion 886 million USD, while the figure is 2 billion 321 million USD for investments from Türkiye to the United Kingdom in the same period.
There is a vast amount of cultural exchange between the countries. As per statistics, there are around 250 thousand Turkish citizens living in the UK. More than 1.6 million British tourists visited Turkiye in 2017.
