Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz highlighted Tuesday Türkiye’s growing trade relations with African countries as he held a joint news conference with Lesotho’s Prime Minister Samuel Ntsokoane Matekane following one-on-one and inter-delegation meetings.
Expressing great pleasure in hosting Matekane in Ankara, Yılmaz said the visit is a historic occasion as it marks “the highest-level visit from the Kingdom of Lesotho to our country to date.”
“I believe this visit will pave the way for enhancing our relations with Lesotho and for intensifying high-level engagements in the upcoming period,” he said.
Yılmaz highlighted that the Kingdom of Lesotho is one of Türkiye’s valued partners in the Southern African region, with positive relations between the two countries.
“Türkiye continues to contribute to the development and progress of the African continent on the basis of brotherhood. Through institutions like Turkish Airlines, which flies to over 60 destinations on the continent, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), the Maarif Foundation and the Yunus Emre Institute (YEE), we maintain our strong ties with our brotherly continent,” he noted.
Furthermore, he recalled that to strengthen the relations with the continent, the number of Turkish Embassies in Africa, which stood at 12 in 2002, has increased to 44 today.
“Our President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has visited 31 African countries, including during his tenure as Prime Minister, and closely follows the successful execution of our Africa Partnership Policy,” said Yılmaz.
“In the coming period, we aim to expand our diplomatic network in Africa, including Maseru,” he added, referring to the capital of Lesotho.
“We are also pleased to learn of Lesotho’s intention to establish an embassy in Ankara in the near future,” he said.
Moreover, Yılmaz also touched upon commercial relations, noting that Türkiye’s trade volume with African countries, which was $5.4 billion in 2003, increased sevenfold to $37 billion in 2023.
“Our goal is to raise our trade volume with the continent to $50 billion in the shortest time possible. The capital position of Turkish investments in Africa has reached $2.3 billion as of 2023, and the total value of Turkish investments is estimated to have reached $10 billion,” he said.
Yılmaz also stated that Turkish construction firms have undertaken 1,977 projects worth $91.6 billion across the African continent to date.
“Our trade volume with Sub-Saharan African countries, which was $1.35 billion in 2003, reached $12.4 billion in 2023,” he also said.
Regarding trade and investment with Lesotho, the vice president acknowledged that progress has been limited in the past but expressed optimism that a new era would begin following Prime Minister Matekane’s visit.
“During our meetings with the Prime Minister, both one-on-one and with our delegations, we agreed to develop our relations in the fields of trade, agriculture, education, tourism, and the environment and to take new steps to enhance mutual trade and investments,” he maintained.
“Our initial target is to reach the trade volume of $50 million, but in the long term, I believe we can easily achieve much higher levels,” he added.
Matekane, for his part, emphasized that the visit to Türkiye was of historical importance and said that the parties held important meetings to take their close relations one step further.
“The two countries have decided to open mutual diplomatic missions,” he said, adding that his country will do its best in this regard.
