Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu paid a visit to Ethiopia in order to attend the African Union Summit taking place in Addis Ababa on January 30-31, 2015. The theme of the 24th African Union Summit was set as “Women's Empowerment and Development towards Africa’s Agenda 2063”.

Turkey, which became an observer in 2005 and was admitted as a strategic partner in 2008, pays attention to high-level representation in the African Union Summits, which are held in January and June every year to discuss issues concerning Africans.

Within the framework of the summit, Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu exchanged views on bilateral and regional issues with his counterparts, particularly African Union officials. Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu also had the chance to evaluate the outcomes of the II. Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit, which was held in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, on November 19-21, 2014.

Underlining that Turkey is one of the three strategic partners of the African continent together with China and India, Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu said that “We are present almost in all sub-regions of Africa with Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency, Turkish Red Crescent, Turkish Airlines, 39 Turkish Embassies all over the continent, other organizations of ours, our businesspeople and humanitarian assistance. We have a strong cooperation and we want to further develop this.”