Handan Kazancı
01 January 2019•Update: 02 January 2019
By Nazli Yuzbasioglu
ANKARA
Turkish foreign minister travelled a total of 435,000 kilometers (270,296 miles) equivalent of 11 trips circling the globe, as part of his intensive diplomacy.
Mevlut Cavusoglu paid a total of 76 diplomatic visits in 2018 to pursue Turkey’s “enterprising and humanitarian” foreign policy.
Last year, Turkey contributed to fight against illegal migration, conducted military operations in northern Syria, supported political process at Astana meetings to find a solution for civil war-torn Syria crisis.
Turkey’s active foreign policy
In 2018, Turkey played important roles in current foreign policy issues at national and international platforms.
Last year, Turkey supported international efforts for the reconstruction of Iraq and also organized two extraordinary summits of Organization of Islamic Cooperation on Palestine-Jerusalem.
The country also continued increasing its humanitarian assistance and mediation activities.
Cavusoglu also followed operations of High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council established with 24 countries.
In addition, Turkey also continued trilateral coordination mechanisms established to increase confidence among regional countries such as Turkey-Afghanistan-Pakistan, Turkey-Bosnia-Herzegovina-Serbia, Turkey-Bosnia-Herzegovina-Croatia, Turkey-Azerbaijan-Iran, Turkey-Azerbaijan-Georgia, Turkey-Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan and Turkey-Azerbaijan-Pakistan.
In 2018, Turkey also assumed the co-chairmanship of the Istanbul Process, for the second time, to contribute to enhancing peace and stability in Afghanistan.
Among Turkey’s European Union accession process, Cavusoglu carried out positive dialogue and normalization process with Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria.
