Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz will meet with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the presidential residence in Ankara, his office said Thursday.
Gantz landed in the Turkish capital Wednesday evening for the first official trip to Turkey by an Israeli defense chief in over a decade, a sign of re-blossoming ties between the countries.
According to a schedule published by his office, Gantz is slated to meet with Erdogan at the Presidential Complex at 3:30 p.m.
Gantz will also meet his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, his office said.
“As part of the meetings, Defense Minister Gantz will renew the official defense relations between the countries,” his office said in a statement.
The meetings mark another step in a year-long process that has seen the countries inch back toward full diplomatic relations after over a decade of frayed ties.
The trip comes two months after Dror Shalom, who heads the Defense Ministry’s Political-Military Bureau, met Turkish defense officials to “renew the lines of security relations between the countries” after a decade, the ministry said.
