The Turkish presidency announced on Sunday that Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh and a delegation of ministers would visit Turkey on Monday for the first time since taking office last month.
After a decade of armed instability, Libya’s new coalition government was sworn in on March 15 after a peaceful transfer of power from two warring regimes that had controlled the eastern and western regions.
According to Reuters, Turkey had backed the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) against the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA), which was supported by Russia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and France.
Dbeibeh will pay a two-day visit to Turkey at the invitation of President Tayyip Erdogan, according to the Turkish presidency, and he and Erdogan will co-chair the first meeting of the Turkey-Libya High Level Strategic Cooperation Council in Ankara.
“At the Council Meeting to be held with the participation of relevant ministers, all aspects of Turkey-Libya relations, which have deeply-rooted, historic ties, will be discussed, steps that can be taken to further improve cooperation will be evaluated,”
Dbeibeh is expected to travel to Ankara with a delegation of 14 ministers, five deputy prime ministers, the chief of staff, and other officials, according to Turkish state media. It also stated that cooperation on energy and health will be addressed, as well as the resumption of Turkish companies’ projects that had been halted due to the conflict.
Turkey has stated that Turkish companies will actively participate in the reconstruction of the war-torn region.
Dbeibeh, who was chosen by a UN-led process, has stated that economic ties between the GNA and Turkey should be maintained. Last month, Libya’s new presidency council paid a visit to Turkey to meet with Erdogan.
