Türkiye, Colombia raise bilateral ties to strategic partnership

Türkiye and Colombia have raised their bilateral ties to the level of strategical partnership after signing a joint memorandum.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a press conference on Friday with his Colombian counterpart, Ivan Duque Marquez, following a meeting in former's working office at the Dolmabahce Palace in the metropolis Istanbul.

The two leaders touched on issues related to bilateral relations between Ankara and Bogota during the meeting.

"Türkiye and Colombia have raised their bilateral ties to the level of strategic partnership with the joint memorandum," Erdogan told reporters.

Erdogan said that Colombia was one of Türkiye’s most important trade partners in Latin America and the Caribbean, adding the bilateral trade volume has doubled to over $2 billion in 2021.

“Colombia also became one of the countries where we increased our exports the most last year. Our goal is to increase our trade volume to $5 billion as soon as possible,” the president said.

He said that he would pay a visit to Colombia and the region from August 7.

Strategic cooperation

Colombian president Ivan Duque Marquez underlined that the agreements signed between Türkiye and Colombia not only expanded the trade volume, but also planted an important seed in relations.

“Our aim is to accelerate our bilateral relations. How do we gain this momentum? First of all, we will improve our bilateral relations. We will ensure this development together with our strategic cooperation,” Duque said.

“We will immediately start to double, triple, quadruple, our bilateral trade volume in the next 10 years. We need to start this right now,” he added.

Duque arrived in Istanbul on Friday and will remain there until Sunday at the invitation of Erdogan.

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