Saudi Arabia announced on Monday that it was depositing $5 billion in the Turkish central bank in an effort to help the country combat inflation and the effects of last month’s earthquake ahead of presidential elections.
According to Agence France Presse, this was said in a statement by the Saudi government.
The statement revealed that the Saudi tourism minister and board chairman of the Saudi Fund for Development, Ahmed Al Khateeb, signed an agreement with Turkish central bank governor Sahap Kavcioglu “to make a significant $5 billion deposit.”
The statement further reads, “This deposit is a testament to the close cooperation and historical ties that exist between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Turkey and its brotherly people.”
According to the report, the decision was made on the orders of King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and will help Turkey’s foreign reserves and fight against inflation.
The action shows a warming of relations between Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and Ankara, Turkey after the killing of Saudi journalist and government critic Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate in 2018.
Meanwhile, before last month’s enormous 7.8-magnitude earthquake that shook many parts of the country and Syria, killing more than 50,000 people, Turkey already struggled with surging inflation and a collapsing currency.
