The Turkish Ambassador to Kuala Lumpur, Amir Salim Yuksal, stressed the importance of Malaysia for Turkey within the framework of the “Asia Renewed” initiative announced by Ankara in 2019.
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In August 2019, Turkey announced the “Asia Again” initiative with the aim of strengthening cooperation with Asian countries in various economic, political, cultural, educational and other fields.
The Turkish ambassador said that Ankara and Kuala Lumpur have close relations based on a historical and cultural perspective.
He explained that high-level visits between the two countries stopped following the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Malaysia in 2019 due to the Corona epidemic.
He stressed that these visits gained great momentum during the recent period, citing the visit of Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaqoub to Turkey last July.
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On the details of the Malaysian Prime Minister’s visit, the Turkish ambassador said that it was important from various aspects, noting that it included meetings on various levels, most notably the bilateral meeting between President Erdogan and Jacob and another at the level of delegations, in addition to other meetings between various officials of the two countries.
He stated that the aforementioned visit witnessed the signing of 15 official documents, 7 of which were by President Erdogan and the Malaysian Prime Minister.
He continued, “In addition to the documents signed during the visit, the most important outcome was the transformation of the strategic cooperation launched between the two countries in 2014 into a comprehensive strategic cooperation.”
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He noted that the Malaysian guest’s visit to Ankara was also important in terms of the defense industry sector, which he said Turkey attaches great importance to.
He stated that the Malaysian Prime Minister visited the headquarters of the Turkish Aerospace Industries Company (TOSA) and the Institute of Machinery and Chemical Industries (in Ankara), which gave him the opportunity to hold meetings with representatives of these companies and thus get a closer look at the Turkish capabilities in this field.
In a related context, Yuksal said that Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will visit Malaysia today, Thursday, at the invitation of his Malaysian counterpart Seifuddin Abdullah.
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He explained that Cavusoglu’s visit to Kuala Lumpur comes to follow up on what was communicated during the Malaysian Prime Minister’s visit to Turkey.
He pointed out the desire of the two countries to make progress on files of common interest in light of the great momentum in high-level visits, which increases the importance of Cavusoglu’s visit to Kuala Lumpur.
He stated that economic and regional files, strengthening trade relations, and increasing cooperation between defense industries and education institutions in the two countries will top the agenda of Cavusoglu’s visit.
In another context, the Turkish diplomat said that Malaysia enjoys an important place in the “Asia Again” initiative.
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Yuksal stressed the importance of Malaysia for Turkey, as it is one of the most prominent countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations “ASEAN”, of which Ankara is one of its partners.
“We attach great importance to Malaysian support in order to strengthen our relations with ASEAN,” he added.
He pointed out that Turkey and Malaysia are also members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, indicating that the unification of their economic strength is of great importance in terms of providing investment and production opportunities and technology transfer between them.
