Deciphering Turkey—Africa Summits

Abstract

Over the last two decades, international summits have gained great importance for regional and global actors in terms of developing relations with African countries. China, India, Japan, the Unites States, European countries and Russia have conducted various summits and business forums to develop political, economic and military relations with Africa. In 2005, Turkey emerged as a new actor when its foreign policy opened up to Africa. It was a strategic partner to the African Union in 2008, has conducted two Turkey–Africa summits—in 2008 in Istanbul, and in 2014 in Malabo—and the third summit was held again in Istanbul in December 2021. This article analyses the Istanbul and Malabo declarations comprehensively to evaluate Turkey’s foreign policy discourse on Africa. Moreover, it examines Turkey’s Africa policy implementations and achievements in the continent through the lens of summits.