Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Since the beginning of October 2020, the decision of the government of Saudi Arabia to completely ban the import of Turkish goods into the Kingdom came into force.

Commenting on these restrictive measures, the head of the KSA Chamber of Commerce A. al-Ajlan called for a boycott of "everything Turkish", including any ties with it in the fields of investment and tourism. He also stressed that this is "the responsibility of every Saudi."

According to experts, the introduction of restrictions is due to the accumulated systemic problems in relations between the two countries.

First, Ankara and Riyadh are fighting a tough fight for the leading positions in the Arab-Muslim world. Today, the interests of opponents clashed in Libya, Syria, Yemen and the Red Sea, and the KSA’s close regional allies - the UAE and Egypt - actually found themselves in a state of "hybrid war" with Turkey in the Libyan conflict.

Second, the KSA is concerned about the strengthening of the regional role of the Turkish-Qatari alliance. It was Turkey that minimized the efforts of the Arab quartet "KSA-UAE-Egypt-Bahrain" to exert maximum pressure on Qatar by introducing an economic blockade.

Thirdly, irrefutable facts provided by the Turkish side about the involvement of the KSA authorities in the murder of journalist J. Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate General in Istanbul (in 2018) undermined the international reputation of Riyadh.

In these conditions, the Saudi side sends a "signal" to Ankara about the negative impact of its regional policy on economic ties. KSA is Turkey’s 4th trading partner among Arab countries, 15th in the world. The annual volume of Turkish exports exceeds US$3 billion, and KSA’s investments in Turkey are less than US$1 billion.

With this in mind, experts note that the current restrictions are not able to push the Turkish side to revise its external course. However, Riyadh could have pressure on other countries in the Arab world to take similar measures. These countries account for 20% of Turkey’s total export volume (more than US$35 billion).

In general, the KSA intends to take advantage of the deteriorating economic growth and the depletion of Turkey’s foreign exchange resources in order to put pressure on its regional adversary.