Qatar supports Erdogan, challenges Trump

CAIRO - 15 August 2018: Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar pledged $15 billion of direct investments in Turkey following a meeting with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg.

The U.S. based news agency reported also that during the meeting both Erdogan and Al Thani expressed their intention to strengthen ties between the two countries in all areas with no further information about the nature of these investments.

Through his facebook and twitter official pages, the Egyptian-American businessman and chief economic adviser at Allianz, Mohamed A. El-Erian, posted that Qatar’s support to Erdogan’s government will help Turkey find alternative sources of support to avoid IMF.

#Bloomberg reporting #Qatar pledged $15 billion "in direct investments in #Turkey."
This is part of the #Turkish government's strategy to avoid the #IMF by finding alternative external support.
To be a sustainable stabilizer, funding needs to be larger and reach the central bank

— Mohamed A. El-Erian (@elerianm) August 15, 2018

The Qatari investments challenges the U.S. administration, as both Turkey and the U.S. are living a diplomatic dispute as Erdogan refused to give in to pressures from the U.S. to release 50-year-old evangelical pastor, Andrew Brunson, who Turkey accuses of aiding a coup attempt against Erdogan two years ago. The Turkish move fueled a dispute between Turkey and the U.S. which voiced outrage at the pastor’s fate.


Earlier in August, the U.S. administration doubled its tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum which helped encourage the Turkish Lira’s fall on Friday. Erdogan accused the U.S. of stabbing its ally, Turkey, in the back.
The Qatari support to Turkey brings to the scene the previous Turkish position of supporting Qatar amid the diplomatic dispute with Arab countries in 2017 generated from Qatar’s support to terrorist groups and funding unrest activities in many Arab countries including Egypt. Erdogan vowed in June, 2017 to keep supporting Qatar and approved legislation on deploying troops to Qatar.