Manama: Kuwait’s Emir Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will lay the foundation stone of a new terminal building at Kuwait International Airport on Tuesday.
Turkish Construction Company Limak Insaat, in June last year, won the tender for the construction.
Limak Insaat, built and operated the new terminal building in Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen Airport as well as the terminal at Kosovo’s Pristina Airport.
Erdogan is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday in the northern Arabian Gulf country on an official visit that will also include talks with Shaikh Sabah on promoting bilateral relations and on developments in the region.
The visit by the Turkish leader comes less than two months after Shaikh Sabah flew to Turkey. It was the second visit in less than 10 months by the Kuwaiti Emir to Turkey where he headed the Kuwaiti delegation at the global summit for humanitarian action hosted by Istanbul.
Erdogan visited to Kuwait in April 2015, a few months after assuming power.
Bilateral relations between the two countries got a boost in 1969 when the two countries signed an accord for establishing diplomatic relations, followed by the opening of embassies in 1970.
The relationship grew further in the 1990s after Ankara firmly stood on Kuwait’s side in face of the Iraqi aggression.
Following the 1991 liberation of Kuwait, the late Emir, Shaikh Jaber Al Ahmad Al Sabah paid an official visit to Ankara to express gratitude for the Turkish stance during Iraqi aggression.
In 1997, Kuwait hosted the late Turkish President Suleyman Demirel who held talks with the late Emir Shaikh Jaber on ties and issues of common interest.
Kuwait backed the Turkish government during a coup attempt against it in July 2016.
Economic relations between the two countries have also been improving.
During Shaikh Sabah’s visit to Turkey in March 2017, several accords for cooperation in the tourism and military fields were signed.
In 2008, during the first official visit to Turkey by the Emir, seven cooperation agreements in the economic, scientific and technical areas were signed while in 2013, eight deals regarding aviation, education, health and defence industries were inked.
Turkey’s former president Abdullah Gul visited Kuwait in 2014. During Gul’s visit the two countries signed agreements for cooperation in military training and maritime transport.
Bilateral trade has increased from $600 million to $2 billion over the past few years and Kuwaiti businesses invested $5 billion in Turkey in 2015.
Around 70,000 Kuwaiti tourists travel to Turkey annually.
