(Bloomberg) -- The presidents of Iran and Turkey discussed the war in Gaza and cooperation against Kurdish militants during a meeting on Wednesday, as the neighbors signed several agreements to boost cooperation from trade to energy.

Talks with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi focused on the conflict between Israel and Hamas as well as efforts to counter the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq and its Iranian wing, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Raisi and Erdogan oversaw the signing of 10 memoranda of understanding to deepen ties spanning transport, tourism and energy with the aim of increasing bilateral trade to their $30 billion target. 

“We are attaching importance to deepen our relations with Iran based on mutual trust and common interests,” Erdogan said in televised comments. “We’ve emphasized the need for Iran to increase its support in fight against the PKK” and affiliated militants in Iran and Syria, he said. 

Dozens of Turkish soldiers have died in PKK raids in northeast Iraq in recent months, following an expansion of Turkish army posts in the area, they added, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information. The PKK has fought a decades-long war with Turkey for autonomy.

“Turkey’s security is our security,” Raisi said. “The security of the countries of the region is our security.”

Iran has also clashed with Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq over the alleged presence there of Israeli intelligence services. Last week Tehran conducted missile strikes on what it called a Mossad spy base in Erbil.

The sides were expected to discuss the renewal of an Iranian natural gas export contract that’s due to expire in 2026 and a potential increase in Iranian gas exports to Turkey,  according to people familiar who spoke before the talks. 

Turkey has aspirations to become a regional energy transit hub, but Iran often cuts off gas supply to Turkey in winter to meet its own domestic demand. 

Gaza War

Iran-backed militias in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen have actively joined Hamas’s war with Israel and its allies, targeting American forces and commercial ship traffic in the region. 

Turkey is a NATO member but unlike the US and the European Union doesn’t consider Hamas a terrorist organization. Erdogan has called the group’s militants “freedom fighters,” though he’s stopped short of cutting ties with Israel altogether.

Economic relations have taken a hit but didn’t rupture. Israel-Turkey trade declined by 45% to $1.3 billion in the last three months of 2023 compared with the same period a year ago, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency.

“While trade relations between the two countries might be affected, they still continue under existing agreements,” Nihat Zeybekci, deputy chairman of Erdogan’s ruling AK Party in charge of economic issues, told Bloomberg in an interview on Monday.

Asked whether Turkey has any plans to restrict trade with Israel, Zeybekci said: “No. It is definitely not on our agenda.”

--With assistance from Patrick Sykes.

(Adds signing of cooperation deals in first paragraph.)

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.