Turkey, Saudi Arabia set visa deal as ties continue warming

Turkey and Saudi Arabia are preparing to remove visa requirements for holders of special and diplomatic passports, a limited but telling step that would deepen a thaw already reshaping trade, defense and regional diplomacy between Ankara and Riyadh.

The agreement is expected to be signed in Ankara during talks between Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan. The change would not apply to ordinary travelers, but it would ease movement for officials, business figures and other people tied closely to state relations, underscoring how the two governments are rebuilding trust through practical cooperation.

The visa move comes as Türkiye’s Foreign Ministry said the third meeting of the Turkish-Saudi Coordination Council will be held in Ankara on May 6, 2026, with Fidan and Prince Faisal co-chairing. The council has become the clearest sign that relations are no longer limited to symbolic diplomacy. The second meeting was held in Riyadh on May 18, 2025, where the two ministers signed the minutes of the session and their ministries signed a memorandum on diplomatic training cooperation between the Saudi Prince Saud Al-Faisal Institute for Diplomatic Studies and Türkiye’s Diplomatic Academy.

That institutional rebuilding follows years of rupture after the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, a crisis that drove the relationship to one of its lowest points. The thaw gathered speed after the 2022 transfer of the Khashoggi trial to Riyadh, which was widely seen as a turning point. Earlier reporting said Saudi Arabia’s boycott of Turkish goods had cut Turkish exports to the kingdom by 98 percent, a measure that showed how severely the dispute had damaged commerce.

The rebound has now reached the bottom line. Analysis in 2026 said bilateral trade topped $8 billion in 2025, while other 2025 sources put trade at about $8.5 billion by year-end, with both sides aiming for $10 billion in the near term. The relationship has also broadened into defense, investment, real estate and construction, reflecting a wider strategic reset rather than a narrow trade recovery.

Fidan was also expected to press Ankara’s preference for regional ownership in Middle East affairs and warn against fresh tensions around the Strait of Hormuz, a reminder that the visa agreement sits inside a larger security conversation. For Turkey and Saudi Arabia, easier travel for a select group of passport holders is less about tourism at the border than about two former rivals trying to lock in a new phase of cooperation across the region.