What Turkey’s upgrade to Asean dialogue partner status means

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan calls the development ‘of utmost importance’ in its relationship with Asia-Pacific countries

In a social media post on the same day, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Ankara had increased its cooperation with Asean members and raised trade volume from US$6.5 billion to US$16 billion since “laying the foundation of our institutional relations with Asean in 2010”.

“We believe that our political and economic cooperation with the Asean region, which has a population of around 700 million and an economy exceeding US$4 trillion, will deepen even further,” he said.

Turkey’s relations with the bloc began with the signing of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in 2010. It was later conferred sectoral dialogue partner status in 2017.