By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The Foreign Minister of Turkey, Hakan Fidan is expected to travel to Djibouti next week where he will participate in a Turkey-Africa ministerial meeting, seeking to improve cooperation between Ankara and the continent, a ministry official announced.
The official added that the meeting taking place between November 2 and 3 will also have in attendance representatives from 14 African countries.
This comes as Turkey, a member of NATO, increases its presence and influence in Africa in recent years, raising trade by nearly eight-fold, offering diplomatic and military support to some of the countries on the continent.
The meeting in Djibouti will also evaluate a previous conference held in 2021 and discuss possible moves to deepen cooperation, the foreign ministry official who pleaded anonymity said.
Like France, Russia, China and other major powers, Turkey is making efforts to have a foothold in Africa, brokering new partnerships with several nations and providing military equipment.
Heritage Times HT reports that earlier in the week, Turkey signed a cooperation agreement with Niger on mining, after having sealing a similar cooperation deal with the West African nation on oil and gas in July.
Officials said Turkey’s provision of defence equipment and military training aimed to strengthen “national capabilities” and support counterterrorism.
“Countries that have acquired Turkish drones have increased their ground control in their countries,” said an official, citing Burkina Faso’s doubling the level of its control over the state to 65% using Turkish drones.
Turkey is exploring new areas of investment with Nigeria by way of joint ventures and technological relationships.
Recently, the first edition of the Turkiye-Nigeria Business and Investment forum held in Lagos, aiming to promote bilateral trade and investment between Nigeria and Turkey.
