President Muhammadu Buhari will depart Abuja on Thursday for Istanbul, Turkey to attend the third Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit. The summit would be hosted by the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan with the theme, “Enhanced Partnership for Common Development and Prosperity.” This was made known in a statement on Thursday by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.
Shehu said, “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, defense, industry, mining, and hydrocarbons were signed to expand existing bilateral ties.
“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 guideline and direction for cooperation with African countries for the next five years.”
The summit is also expected to review the cooperation between Turkey and African countries since the last summit was held in 2014.
President Buhari would be accompanied on the trip by his wife, Aisha Buhari; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of Defence, Maj-Gen. Bashir Magashi (Rtd); Minister of FCT, Mohammed Bello; Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire; Minister of Agriculture, Mohammed Abubakar, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo, the National Security Adviser, Maj-Gen. Babagana Monguno (Rtd); and the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ahmed Abubakar.
The President is expected to return to Abuja on Sunday, December 19.
