{"id":31215,"date":"2017-11-16T11:38:57","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T06:38:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=31215"},"modified":"2017-11-16T11:38:57","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T06:38:57","slug":"erdogan-pledges-military-support-for-qatar-on-doha-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=31215","title":{"rendered":"Erdogan pledges military support for Qatar on Doha visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

DOHA Nov 16 (TNS):<\/strong> Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged his country’s continued military support for Qatar during a visit to Doha, according to state media, amid the ongoing political crisis in the Gulf.<\/p>\n

Erdogan also signalled the “readiness” of Turkey’s private sector to help Qatar with its multi-billion projects for the 2022 football World Cup, according to the Qatar News Agency (QNA).<\/p>\n

He held talks with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani during the visit, reported QNA.<\/p>\n

It also said the two countries signed a number of financial, tourism, and research agreements.<\/p>\n

“Erdogan stressed the continued support of Turkey to the State of Qatar in various fields, especially in the industrial and military,” read the QNA statement.<\/p>\n

Turkey has a military base in Qatar, which Ankara says has facilities for around 3,000 troops.<\/p>\n

During Wednesday’s visit, Erdogan visited the Turkish military base with senior Qatari officials, including Defence Minister Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah.<\/p>\n

Erdogan’s backing came during his second official visit to Qatar \u2014 a close ally \u2014 since a bitter regional crisis began five months ago, threatening to destabilise the Gulf.<\/p>\n

The increasingly entrenched dispute erupted on June 5 when Qatar was politically and economically boycotted by a quartet of neighbouring countries over its alleged support for terrorist groups and relations with Iran.<\/p>\n

Qatar, the world’s largest exporter of liquified natural gas, denies the charges and says the dispute is an attack on its sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Erdogan was in Qatar 24 hours after visiting Kuwait, which has acted as a mediator during the Gulf dispute.<\/p>\n

Relations between Turkey and Qatar are exceptionally friendly.<\/p>\n

Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim was the first foreign leader to phone Erdogan during the unsuccessful Turkish coup in July 2016, according to Turkish state media.<\/p>\n

Trade between the two countries at the end of 2015 stood at $1.26 billion.<\/p>\n

This is figure is likely to grow, partly because of the Gulf crisis, as Qatar has used Turkey to replace traditional regional food suppliers because of the boycott.<\/p>\n

Recent contracts won by Turkish companies in Qatar include one to build a 10-lane highway.<\/p>\n

In 2016, Qatari broadcaster beIN Media announced it had purchased Turkey’s pay-TV company Digiturk.<\/p>\n

Erdogan left Qatar on Wednesday evening, said QNA.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DOHA Nov 16 (TNS): Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged his country’s continued military support for Qatar during a visit to Doha, according to state media, amid the ongoing political crisis in the Gulf. Erdogan also signalled the “readiness” of Turkey’s private sector to help Qatar with its multi-billion projects for the 2022 football World […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[489,19],"tags":[972,733],"class_list":["post-31215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-doha","category-world","tag-doha","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31217,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31215\/revisions\/31217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}