Turkey officially opens embassy in Equatorial Guinea

MALABO / ANKARA

Turkey’s foreign minister on Wednesday officially opened Ankara’s first embassy in Equatorial Guinea’s capital Malabo.

Speaking at the event, Mevlut Cavusoglu said that he is pleased to be the first Turkish foreign minister to pay an official visit to the Central African nation.

Diplomatic relations between Ankara and Malabo were established in the 1980s.

Cavusoglu said: “Especially with the friendship between President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, our relations have progressed and developed rapidly in the last three, four years.”

Underlining that Turkey attaches great importance to the relations with African countries, Cavusoglu described Equatorial Guinea as “a strategic partner”.

“We visited two more countries in West Africa before coming to Malabo. First Togo, then Niger. We signed nine agreements in total, two agreements yesterday in Malabo,” he said.

“In fact, even these agreements are an indication of our desire to improve our relations with the African Union at all levels,” he added.

After the ceremony, Cavusoglu met with Equatorial Guinea's President Mbasogo.

Turkey’s top diplomat embarked on a three-day Africa tour including Togo, Niger, and Equatorial Guinea on Monday.

Under President Erdogan's leadership, Turkey has pursued an unprecedented outreach to Africa based on the principle of win-win.

As part of the country’s cooperation with Africa, the Turkish government has donated millions of dollars for infrastructure development on the continent and sponsored hundreds of African students.

Turkish Embassy in Malabo became operational on June 1, 2018, whereas the first Embassy of Equatorial Guinea was opened in Ankara in December 2018, according to Turkish Foreign Ministry.