President Muhammadu Buhari will today, Thursday leave Abuja for Istanbul, Turkey, to attend the third Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit, hosted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the Republic of Turkey.
According to the organisers, the theme of the Summit is ‘‘Enhanced Partnership for Common Development and Prosperity’’ and the agenda includes reviewing the cooperation between African countries and Turkey since the last summit in 2014.
The third Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit is coming on the heels of President Erdogan’s recent State Visit to Nigeria during which several agreements in the fields of energy, defence industry, mining and hydrocarbons were signed to expand existing bilateral ties.
Expand the volume of trade
The Turkish leader had, during the visit to Nigeria, affirmed his commitment to immediately expand the volume of trade between the two countries to 5 billion dollars and the Nigerian delegation will seize the opportunity of the gathering in Istanbul to enhance cooperation with other partners for more trade and investment opportunities in the country.
It is expected that the Summit would provide guidelines and direction for cooperation with African countries for the next five years.
President Buhari will be accompanied on the trip by his wife, Aisha; the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Defence, Maj-Gen. Bashir Magashi (Rtd); FCT, Mohammed Bello; Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire; Agriculture, Mohammed Abubakar; Industry, Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo; the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno ; and the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ahmed Rufai Abubakar.
He is expected back in Abuja on Sunday, December 19.
Lateefah Ibrahim
The aim is to ensure that by the end of 8yrs, all countries of the world must have been visited at least twice. I wonder what purpose that serves!