Türkiye and Djibouti are marking the tenth anniversary of the official opening of the Turkish embassy in Djibouti as well as the start of flights by Türkiye's national carrier, the Turkish Airlines, to the Horn Africa country.
In a recorded video message to a special Iftar - Ramadan fast-breaking dinner - in Djibouti as part of the anniversary, Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Türkiye was working to boost its investments in Djibouti to more than $1bn and to take relations between the two countries to a ''special level.''
Mr Çavuşoğlu thanked Djibouti for its show of solidarity following devastating earthquakes that hit southern Turkiye in February killing more than 50,000 and affecting more than two million others.
He condoled the government and people of Djibouti on the death of five Djiboutian students in the disaster. The Iftar dinner was organized by the Turkish Embassy and Turkish Airlines in the city of Djibouti on Thursday evening.
Turkish Ambassador to Djibouti, Cenk Uraz said at the event that Türkiye was now one of Djibouti's leading trading partners.
''Last year, our bilateral trade volume broke a record by exceeding 500 million USD. Currently, Turkiye is among the top trade partners of Djibouti,'' he told the gathering attended by six Djibouti government ministers.
Türkiye established its embassy in Djibouti in 2013 a year after the eastern Africa country opened its embassy in Ankara.
Turkish Ambassador Cenk Uraz said although ‘’it has been only 10 years since the establishment of our Embassy, our relations with Djibouti have made remarkable progress in all fields on the basis of mutual respect and cooperation.’’
He highlighted some of the key areas of growing ties including business and education with 1400 students from Djibouti studying in Türkiye as well as the training of Djiboutian professionals in various fields.
The Turkish ambassador pointed out that the relationship between Türkiye and Djibouti is on the ‘’basis of win-win understanding.’’
Mr Uraz suggested that his country was making efforts to boost ties with the entire continent of Africa saying: ''Today, with its 411 aircraft, our flag carrier Turkish Airlines has the widest flight network to 343 destinations in 129 countries. This includes more than 60 destinations in Africa.’’
According to the Turkish envoy, the ‘’brotherly relations’’ between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkiye and his Djibouti counterpart Ismail Omar Guelleh as well as the ‘’close ties’’ between people of the two countries have been ‘’the driving force’’ of the growing bilateral relations.
