What will Saudi Arabia say? Booming Qatar-Turkey Trade To Hit $2 bn For 2018

[50 shades of black + 254]

Trade between Qatar and Turkey is expected to have hit $2 billion in 2018, a Turkish official said, up 54 percent from the previous last year and underscoring Ankara’s solidified role as a top ally to Qatar amid a political rift in the Gulf region.Ankara has emerged as one of Qatar’s top partners since a Saudi Arabia-led bloc launched a trade and diplomatic boycott of the tiny Gulf state in 2017, sending additional troops and food to shore up Qatar’s needs just after it began.
Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt accuse Qatar of supporting terrorism. Doha denies the charge and says the boycott aims to infringe on its sovereignty. Speaking at a Turkish trade expo that kicked off in Doha on Wednesday, Turkish Deputy Finance Minister Osman Dinçbaş said that Qatar was one of the fastest growing areas of trade for Turkey in 2018, and the $2 billion figure is expected to grow. Qatar last year pledged a $15 billion package of economic projects, investments and deposits for Turkey that included an up to $3 billion currency swap to firm up the country’s battered lira. Dinçbaş said “a portion of the $15 billion” had so far arrived but declined to specify how much or in what form.

[Pavel + 384]

They are in "brotherhood" circle, so no surprise....

[pinto + 293]

Turkey is one of Qatar's top customers for non-oil exports, so quid pro quo....

[damirUSBiH + 327]

One thing is common for SA&Q. They have successfully distracted terrorists from their country by exporting terrorism to the other countries...

Edited January 17, 2019 by damirUSBiH

[rainman + 263]

Qatar funds Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood among others. The country is one of the worst to partners with in countering terror....

[shadowkin + 584]

I guess when you're Turkey/Qatar $2 billion would be something to brag about. To countries with real wealth that's a rounding error. All Gulf Muslim countries back terrorists but the terrorists Saudi and allies support are different than the ones that Qatar/Turkey support.

 

8 hours ago, 50 shades of black said:

Qatar last year pledged a $15 billion package of economic projects, investments and deposits for Turkey that included an up to $3 billion currency swap to firm up the country’s battered lira.

Arab custom to buy their way out of problems unfortunately they've hitched their wagon to a sick man in Turkey.

[John Foote + 1,135]

The Saudis created this problem. Fools thought Qatar would just cave at the embargo.

Qataris regularly advocate for a version of a representative government, and few things scare a royal monarch in Saudi Arabia or the U.A.E. more. Now when you ensure the run of the mill citizen gets $400K a year, people tend to be happy with their own royals. And with that kind of money you don't have the frustration fundamentalism prays on.

Qatar has issues, but if we are going to declare enemies for funding Islamic extremism, the folks initiating the blockade have been far worse. 

Turkey is probably the only half decent military Qatar could hire. The folks of Kuwait have done the same. The threat isn't Iran to these places, it's internal politics, and the KSA.