Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu is accompanying President Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to attend the II. Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, on 19-21 November 2014.

At the summit, where several meetings are held at the level of heads of state and government as well as foreign ministers, Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu addressed his counterparts. In his speech, Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu expressed that the Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit will facilitate political, economic and social interaction to a great degree. Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu underlined the Summit’s importance within the context of the realization of long-term commitments and support for Turkey-Africa partnership.

Pointing out that last year Turkey’s Embassies in Africa reached up to 39 and African countries’ Embassies in Turkey reached up to 30, Çavuşoğlu stated “This is an important step for our cooperation and partnership.”

Reminding that this year the Summit is being held with the theme “A new model of partnership to enhance a sustainable development and integration of Africa", Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu stated that Africa has been developing rapidly for nearly 20 years and most African countries experienced constant growth for more than ten years. Foreign Minister expressed that the objective of the Africa-Turkey Partnership Summit is to further develop present cooperation mechanisms and to aim for a brighter future for Turkey and Africa together.

Stating that a third of Turkey’s Official Development Aid and Foreign Aid is allocated to Africa, Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu declared that Turkey is currently working on an aid plan of 5 million dollars towards countering the Ebola epidemic, thus emphasized that cooperation in the area of health also strengthened.

Drawing attention to the fact that Turkey has increased its trade with sub-Saharan countries six-fold in the last decade with respect to the issue of economic cooperation, Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu stated that the trade volume, which is currently 23 billion USD, is aimed to be augmented to 50 billion USD until 2018. Pointing out that hundreds of Turkish companies are doing business in Africa, Çavuşoğlu expressed that Turkish construction companies are also active on the field.

Expressing that Turkey will assume the presidency of G-20 on December 1st, Çavuşoğlu stated that Turkey will echo the concerns of African countries on the G-20 platform and Turkey’s relations with Africa will keep growing during the G-20 presidency.

Before the Summit, Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu held bilateral meetings with Equatorial Guinea Foreign Minister Agapito Mba Mokuy and Moritanian Foreign Minister Ahmed Ould Teguedi. At the end of the meeting, Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu toured the photograph exhibition about Turkish-African relations with African officials.

Fore detailed information on Africa-Turkey relations and II. Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit: www.afrika.mfa.gov.tr/default.tr.mfa