Buhari leaves for Turkey-Africa partnership summit in Istanbul

President Muhammadu Buhari has left Abuja for Turkey-Africa partnership summit holding in Istanbul, Turkey.

The summit is being hosted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.

A statement by presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, gave the theme of the summit as “Enhanced Partnership for Common Development and Prosperity”, adding that would include reviewing the cooperation between African countries and Turkey since the last summit in 2014.

“The third Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit is coming on the heels of President Erdogan’s recent State Visit to Nigeria during which several agreements in the fields of energy, defence industry, mining and hydrocarbons were signed to expand existing bilateral ties,” the statement said.

It also stated, “The Turkish leader had, during the visit to Nigeria, affirmed his commitment to immediately expand the volume of trade between the two countries to 5 billion dollars and the Nigerian delegation will seize the opportunity of the gathering in Istanbul to enhance cooperation with other partners for more trade and investment opportunities in the country.

“It is expected that the Summit would provide guidelines and direction for cooperation with African countries for the next five years.”

According to the statement, the President will be accompanied on the trip by Aisha Buhari, his wife; Geoffrey Onyeama, minister of foreign affairs; Bashir Magashi, minister of defence; Mohammed Bello, minister of the federal capital territory (FCT); Osagie Ehanire, minister of health; Mohammed Abubakar, minister of Agriculture; Adeniyi Adebayo, minister of industry, trade, and investment; Babagana Monguno, national security adviser, and Ahmed Abubakar, director-general of the National Intelligence Agency.

Buhari is expected back in Abuja on Sunday, December 19.