By Tuba Sahin
ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey’s approach to its relations with Africa is “strategic and long term,” the Turkish foreign minister said on Friday.
Speaking at the third Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit, Mevlut Cavusoglu said Istanbul is hosting 102 ministers from Africa, and 26 of them are foreign ministers.
"As the theme of this event is 'Enhanced Partnership for Common Development and Prosperity', we want to march down this path of development with African friends and take our cooperation into the future," Cavusoglu stressed.
Noting that the three-day event is focusing on health care, education, and agriculture, Cavusoglu said that in addition to a joint declaration, an action plan for the next five years will also be unveiled at the summit.
"This action plan, which will have five main topics, includes concrete steps in various areas such as development, trade, industry, education, informatics, women, youth, infrastructure, agriculture, and health," Cavusoglu said.
Recalling that the Organization of Turkic States donated COVID-19 vaccines to Burkina Faso and Togo earlier this month, he said Turkey will work on enhancing ties between the organization and Africa.
"We will donate 2.5 million additional vaccine doses to different African countries in the coming days," Cavusoglu underlined.
Noting that Turkey will soon start production of its first locally made COVID-19 vaccine, TURKOVAC, Cavusoglu said the country will cooperate with Africa in joint production and delivery of the vaccine.
Turkey will continue its support to Africa in the fight against terrorism, he said, adding that lasting peace can only be attained through political stability.
"For this reason, I would like to underline again that we are against the change of elected governments through violence," the Turkish minister added.