Qatari, Turkish officials to attend UAE energy conference amid warming ties

Turkish and Qatari energy officials will attend an event later this month in Dubai amid warming ties between the close regional allies and the UAE.

The Gastech Conference, due to be held at the Dubai World Trade Centre, will feature a talk by Turkey's deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar.

Qatar Energy Minister Saad Al-Kaabi will also attend, the company organising the event told Bloomberg.

He is believed to be the highest-ranking Qatari official to visit the UAE since the end of a rift between the two Gulf states.

The visit by the officials is the latest in a series of de-escalatory signals between the UAE on one hand and Turkey and Qatar on the other.

Earlier this year, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Egypt ended a three-year blockade on Qatar and since then relations have warmed ties.

While the UAE and Bahrain are yet to re-establish diplomatic channels with Doha, in August the National Security Adviser Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited Qatar for a landmark meeting with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

That same month saw a similar development in UAE-Turkey ties, which have been fraught over support for opposing sides in regional conflicts and hotspots, such as Libya.

After Tahnoun bin Zayed visited Ankara, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone with the UAE’s de facto leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed.

In the rare call, the two leaders discussed bilateral ties and the prospects for strengthening relations.