The United Kingdom (UK) was one of the first countries with which the Ottoman Empire established regular diplomatic relations. The first Ambassador appointed by the UK to the Ottoman Empire, William Harborne, assumed his duties in Istanbul in 1583 and Yusuf Agah Efendi appointed as the Ottoman Ambassador to London in 1793.

Türkiye and the UK as NATO Allies and major European partners that are not EU members share a common perspective on various international and regional issues. The deep rooted relations between the Republic of Türkiye and the UK are multidimensional. Cooperation between Türkiye and the UK in particular in the field of security and counter terrorism, economic and defence industry, irregular migration are high on the agenda following the latest developments in the Middle East, Cyprus issue, EU Accession process and Brexit.

The “2010 Strategic Partnership Document”, which was revised and signed during the then Prime Minister Cameron’s visit to Türkiye in 26-26 July 2010, constitutes a road map laying out a wide range of concrete areas of cooperation to further strengthen the existing cooperation between two countries.

Turkish-British “Tatlıdil Forum” comprised of politicians, academicians, media representatives and artists from both sides was established in order to strengthen and institutionalize the dialogue between the two countries. The 7th and the last meeting was held in Reading between 11-13 May 2018. A date for the 8th “Tatlı Dil” meeting is yet to be set.

There are nearly 400 thousand Turkish citizens (around 250 thousand from Türkiye and 150 thousand from TRNC) living in the UK. In return, 16.440 British citizens permanently reside in Türkiye.