Türkiye, African Union to hold key meeting to enhance ties

Serkan Demirtaş - ANKARA

Türkiye and the African Union (AU) will hold a third ministerial review conference in Djibouti in early November to further improve ties between the two sides and discuss regional and global developments.

The third Ministerial Review Conference will be held in Djibouti on Nov. 2 and 3, Turkish diplomatic sources told a group of reporters.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will represent Türkiye at the review conference with the participation of foreign ministers from 14 African countries, including Egypt, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Djibouti, Chad, South Sudan, Comoros, Ghana, Angola and Mauritania.

Consisting of 55 member states, the African Union is the main continental body of Africa. Fourteen countries to be represented at the conference have been selected by the AU through its own channels.

The ministers will review the implementation of the decisions taken at the third Türkiye-Africa Partnership Summit in 2021 and discuss the steps that need to be taken in line with the 2022-2026 Action Plan with the purpose of improving the Turkish-African partnership.

The conference in Djibouti will also serve to prepare the fourth Türkiye-Africa summit to be held in an African country in 2026. The ministers will adopt a joint declaration that will underline the two sides’ mutual will to further develop ties in all fields including economy, trade and investments.

“The joint declaration will highlight our mutual vision for deepening cooperation between Türkiye and the African continent,” a Foreign Ministry official said. It will also raise current regional and global issues, the official added.

Türkiye, along with the world’s prominent powers such as the United States, China and Russia, is one of the strategic partners of the AU and is improving its relations with the entire continent thanks to its two-decade-old Africa opening.

What differentiates Türkiye as an important actor in the continent is the fact that it has no colonial background and treats African countries as equal partners.

Türkiye’s trade with the continent has exceeded $40 billion and the volume of projects undertaken by Turkish contracting companies reached $85 billion in the continent.