Israeli defence chief, Turkish leader to meet in Ankara on October 27

Defence Minister Benny Gantz will meet with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the presidential residence in Ankara, his office said on October 27.

Gantz landed in the Turkish capital on October 26 evening for the first official trip to Türkiye by an Israeli defence chief in over a decade, a sign of re-blossoming ties between the countries, The Times of Israel reports.

According to a schedule published by his office, Gantz is slated to meet with Erdogan at the Presidential Complex at 3:30 p.m [on October 27].

Gantz will also meet his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, his office said.

"As part of the meetings, Defence Minister Gantz will renew the official defence 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 Defence Ministry's Political-Military Bureau, met Turkish defence officials to 'renew the lines of security relations between the countries" after a decade, the ministry said.

During Shalom's meetings in Türkiye, the issues that would be discussed between Gantz and Akar were agreed upon, the ministry added.

On Wednesday, ahead of Gantz's flight, a defence official told the Walla news site that the trip would likely not see any weapons deals being signed between the sides.

"A race of procurement should not be expected here… we are very, very careful to continue this [process] with measured and careful steps. We made it clear and it will be made clear as part of the minister's visit," the official said, noting the sensitive ties Israel has with Turkish rivals Cyprus and Greece.

Defence ties were once a mainstay of Israel’s relations with Türkiye but unravelled as diplomatic ties soured.

Renewed defence ties between Jerusalem and Ankara were said to have been made possible after Turkish authorities managed to foil a series of attacks by Iranian cells that were planning to assassinate or kidnap Israeli tourists in Istanbul in late July.

Last month, for the first time in a decade, a Turkish warship anchored at an Israeli port.

Also last month, Prime Minister Yair Lapid met with Erdogan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly’s annual high-level meeting. It was the first such meeting between an Israeli premier and the Turkish leader since Ehud Olmert met Erdogan in Turkey in 2008.

That discussion came just over a month after the two leaders held a phone call and agreed to move forward with the full restoration of ties and to return ambassadors to each other’s capitals, ending years of antagonism that largely surrounded Israel’s relationship with the Palestinians.

Jerusalem has also long pressed Ankara to crack down on Hamas’s activity in Turkey, arguing that the Gaza-based terror group uses the foreign office to orchestrate terror attacks against Israelis.