President Tayyip Erdogan called Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz and discussed bilateral ties on Tuesday, the Turkish presidency said on Wednesday.

It was second conversation between the two leaders in less than a month, the Turkish presidency added.

Turkey is seeking to improve ties with the kingdom after they were thrown into crisis by the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by a Saudi hit squad in Istanbul in 2018.

Last year, Saudi businessmen endorsed an unofficial boycott of Turkish goods in response to what they called hostility from Ankara, slashing the value of trade by 98%.

Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said last month that the president and King Salman had “a good call” in April and that the foreign ministers of the two countries had agreed to meet.

Tuesday’s conversation came a day ahead of a meeting between Turkish and Egyptian officials in Cairo, the latest step in Turkey’s push to mend relations with another US-allied Arab power.

Turkey said in March it had started talks with Egypt to try to improve relations which collapsed after Egypt’s army toppled a democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood president close to Turkey in 2013, in what Ankara said was a military coup.

The story was filed by the News Desk. The Desk can be reached at info@thecorrespondent.com.pk.

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