By Ahval,
Turkey will soon receive an initial $10 billion deposit from Saudi Arabia into Turkish bonds and accounts after the restoration of diplomatic relations between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Middle East Eye reported on Wednesday.
Saudi Arabia will deposit an initial $10 billion into Turkish treasury bonds and accounts, Turkish newspaper Dunya, citing treasury sources, said on Wednesday. Turkey expects $20 billion deposit from Saudi Arabia in total in order to reinforce its foreign currency reserves.
One Turkish treasury source told Middle East Eye that technical talks were underway to receive $20 billion from Saudi Arabia.
In June, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met Erdoğan in Turkey after a four-year hiatus when Turkey dropped a court case in which Saudi agents accused of killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi were being tried.
Following the crown prince’s visit, both Turkey and Saudi Arabia decided to deepen trade, energy, and defence ties, including political and regional cooperation and consultation.
Earlier this month, Turkish Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati said that Turkey would need $30 billion to $35 billion to finance its current account deficit.
Russian state firm Rosatom agreed to transfer $15 billion to Turkey for the construction of the $20 billion Akkuyu nuclear power plant, Bloomberg said earlier this month citing officials who revealed that an initial $5 billion had already been received.
Rosatom also opened a bid to get a $6.1 billion credit line for the construction of Akkuyu, temporarily placing the funds into Turkish treasury bonds and accounts, Middle East Eye said,
Turkey had already received $7 billion from Russia, which would be parked in Turkish accounts for the next two years, the Turkish treasury source told Middle East Eye.
Based on his own calculations, Hakan Kara, a former Turkish Central Bank chief economist, said that Turkey’s reserves had increased by $7.3 billion.
Turkey is also looking for similar deposits from the UAE and Qatar, two separate Turkish sources told Middle East Eye.
