ANKARA: Turkey and Africa these past years has attracted attention ahead of the Second Turkey-Africa Ministerial Review Conference in Istanbul to take place on Feb. 11-12. The conference is co-organized by the Turkish Foreign Ministry and the African Union Commission with the attendance of 19 African countries. It is being held four years after the Africa-Turkey Summit held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea in November 2014. The upcoming conference is also symbolic in the sense that it coincides with the 10th anniversary of the African Union Summit of 2008 in which Turkey was declared a strategic partner of the African Union. According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s press information note about the conference, it will be attended by a large number of AU member states, including the representatives of Rwanda, Guinea, Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria, Senegal, Libya, South Africa. The first Turkey-Africa summit was held in 2008 in Istanbul, the second one in 2014 in Malabo Equatorial Guinea and the third summit is scheduled for 2019 in Turkey. According to diplomatic sources, Turkey intends to continue it policy towards closer cooperation with the African Union as it attaches great importance to sharing political and cultural experiences and facilities and resources with African countries. Since 2004, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid official visits to 24 African countries accompanied by ministers, bureaucrats and businessmen where he pioneered in the signing of many bilateral treaties between Turkey and African countries.Turkey currently has 40 embassies in African countries. They numbered 12 in 2009. There are 33 African embassies in Ankara. Turkey aims to open embassies in all African countries. Turkey also provides an annual support of $1 million to the African Union since 2009, a source said. In 2015, Turkey’s official development assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa was $395.77 million. Turkey’s bilateral trade volume with Africa increased three-fold from 2003 to reach $18.8 billion in 2017, as exports totaled $11.6 billion and imports $7.1 billion. Total Turkish investment in Africa is estimated to have surpassed $6 billion, the source said. Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) of Turkey has established business councils with 35 African countries and the first Turkey-Africa Economic and Business Forum was held in Istanbul on 2-3 November 2016. The first Turkey-Africa Agriculture Ministers Meeting was held in Antalya, Turkey, in April 2017. The hospitals built by Turkey have been extending a helping hand to thousands of patients in different regions of Africa.
