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President Mugabe bids farewell to General Constantine Chiwenga and Major-General Douglas Nyikayaramba at the Harare International Airport before he left for the 2nd Africa-Turkey Summit in Equatorial Guinea yesterday. — Picture by Tawanda Mudimu

Mabasa Sasa Deputy Editor
African Union Deputy Chair President Mugabe yesterday left Harare for the 2nd Africa-Turkey Summit that will be held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, today and tomorrow.

President Mugabe was seen off at Harare International Airport by Vice President Dr Joice Mujuru; Senior Minister of State Simon Khaya Moyo; Defence Minister Dr Sydney Sekeramayi; Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo; Minister of State for Harare Provincial Affairs Miriam Chikukwa; Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda; and service chiefs.

The Summit, which is themed “A New Model for Partnership for Strengthening of Sustainable Development and Integration of Africa”, comes six years after the first such high-level meeting between African leaders and those from Turkey — an emergent economic power — which was held in Istanbul. Leaders are expected to agree on new milestones and objectives for the 2015-18 period via a declaration and a Joint Implementation Plan.

The inaugural meeting established the Africa-Turkey Partnership under the principle “African issues require African solutions”, and sought to consolidate and grow co-operation in the economic, political and cultural spheres and adopted two documents: the Istanbul Declaration and the Framework for Co-operation.

These spelt out the areas of co-operation between the two parties and an Implementation Plan (2010-2014) for areas of common interest.

This week, Turkey’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Africa and his country had a rich shared history that must be built upon to improve the lives of citizens.

“Turkey has never been in a colonial position or relationship with the continent. On the contrary, African nations looked for help from Ottomans in their struggle against colonial oppressors.

“Furthermore, it is known that our War of Independence which we fought close to a century ago under the able leadership of the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, has had a strong influence on the African peoples in their struggle for liberation and independence . . .’’

The first official diplomatic ties on the continent were established via the opening of a Turkish Consulate in Harar, Ethiopia in 1912. Today there are 39 Turkish embassies across Africa and 32 African ones in Ankara.

Minister Çavuşoğlu said, “There are now thousands of people from Africa, studying, working and living in Turkey and vice versa. Turkish Airlines has become one of the major international carriers of the continent, flying directly to nearly 40 destinations.’’

Turkey’s trade with Africa reached US$23,4 billion last year, and the country hopes to more than double this to US$50 billion in 2015. In 2010, the trade volume between the two did not exceed US$16 billion.

Last year, the country formally became a member of the African Development Bank, meaning Turkish contractors can bid for public tenders on the continent. At present, the major overseas contractors in Africa are Chinese, French and Italian firms.

The major recipients of Turkish FDI in 2013 were Ethiopia (US$1,6 billion), South Africa (US$500 million) and The Sudan (US$250 million).

Turkey’s national airline has grown the number of flights to Africa, with Turkish Airlines reaching 35 destinations in 24 countries.