President Paul Kagame on Friday arrived in Istanbul, Turkey where he joined heads of State and Government from across Africa for the 3rd Africa-Turkey Partnership Summit. The Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit is scheduled to take place in Istanbul on 17-18 December hosted by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The summit is scheduled to launch a new stage in Turkey’s relations with the African Union and African countries, according to Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Turkey's footprint has grown rapidly on the continent with the volume of bilateral trade between Turkey and Africa rose from $5.4bn in 2003 to $25.3bn in 2020, statistics from Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs show.

Over the same period, Turkish foreign direct investment in the continent grew from $100m to $6.5bn, and Turkish companies have become increasingly present across Africa.

The main sectors for Turkish trade and investment are construction, steel and cement, followed by textiles, household goods and electronic devices.

The number of Turkish embassies in Africa has risen from 12 in 2002 to the current figure of 43, while the number of African embassies in Ankara rose from 10 in 2008 to 37 in 2021.

Previous editions of the partnership summit were held in 2008 and 2014, in Istanbul and Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, respectively.

The 2008 summit formalized the strategic partnership between Turkey and the AU and adopted compacts which determined a wide range of primary areas for cooperation, ranging from intergovernmental cooperation, trade and investment to security and educational ties.

In preparation for the coming summit, Turkey had submitted to the AU a report on Turkish-African cooperation between 2015 and 2020 and a five-year action plan for the coming period.

Three editions of the Turkey-Africa Economic and Business Forum have also taken place, with the most recent in Istanbul on 21-22 October 2021.

Turkey aims to double its bilateral trade volume with Africa to $50bn.