Türkiye and Syria have a “historic opportunity” to develop their bilateral relations across multiple areas, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said on Wednesday, as he arrived in Damascus for two-day talks.
The trip marks the most high-profile visit by a Turkish economic official to Syria since the ouster of longtime regime dictator Bashar Assad. Bolat is accompanied by Turkish business leaders, as well as the heads of chambers and trade associations.
Following his talks with Syrian Economy and Industry Minister Nidal al-Shaar and Transport Minister Yarub Badr, Bolat said officials held discussions on bilateral trade issues, new avenues for cooperation, Türkiye’s potential contributions to Syria’s reconstruction efforts and on making border crossings more efficient and streamlined.
Syria is reeling from nearly 14 years of civil war that decimated its infrastructure and economy, and severed it from the global financial system. Opposition forces overthrew Assad after a lightning offensive in late December.
Since then, officials have repeatedly voiced Türkiye’s support and readiness to help rebuild the neighboring country. Transport and manufacturing firms eye big expansion plans for Syria in what some expect will be a tripling of trade.
Bolat said talks with al-Shaar addressed bilateral trade issues, investment opportunities, infrastructure, transportation, energy, finance, health care and customs cooperation.
He reiterated that Türkiye remains fully committed to supporting the neighboring nation in the post-civil war reconstruction and rebuilding process.
“In this context, Türkiye was one of the first countries to open representative offices in Aleppo and Damascus after the December 8th revolution,” Bolat wrote on the social media platform X.
Bolat said the sides expressed their readiness to start negotiations for a comprehensive economic partnership agreement as soon as possible.
“Türkiye and Syria have a historic opportunity to develop their relations in a multidimensional manner in the new period,” the minister noted.
“We emphasized that we are open to cooperation with the business world in a wide range of areas, from investment to services, infrastructure, trade in goods, in line with Syria’s needs and demands,” he added.
Bolat was also scheduled to meet Syrian Finance Minister Mohammad Yasar Bernia and Qutaiba Ahmad Badawi, director-general of Land and Sea Ports.
Last year, Türkiye’s exports to Syria stood at $2.2 billion, while its imports were $437 million, official data showed.
In late January, Turkish and Syrian authorities agreed to start talks to revive a free trade agreement suspended in 2011, when the civil war began. And national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) is one of a handful of carriers to have resumed flights to Damascus after a 13-year suspension.
Talks with Badr addressed the “strengthening of land, sea, rail and air transportation between Türkiye and Syria, the strengthening of ties in the field of logistics, and the possibilities of cooperation in the reconstruction of Syria’s transport infrastructure in all its dimensions,” said Bolat.
Officials also evaluated the “issues of faster and more efficient transitions through customs gates between our countries and the initiation of transit passages that will make Syria a transit base,” he added.
