ANKARA: Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Friday at the ASEAN Summit in Laos. During the meeting, they discussed bilateral relations, energy, and economic cooperation.
Fidan, who is in Vientiane for the Sixth Trilateral Meeting of the Turkiye-ASEAN Sectoral Dialogue Partnership, also addressed a range of regional issues with Lavrov, including the Russia-Ukraine conflict, developments in the Gaza Strip, and the situation in Syria.
In addition to meeting with Lavrov, Fidan is scheduled to hold discussions with officials from Malaysia, Laos, Singapore, and England. He will also meet with the ASEAN Secretary-General.
Turkiye first established institutional relations with ASEAN and signed the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, one of ASEAN’s founding documents, in 2010. It became a sectoral dialogue partner in 2017.
Last July, Fidan attended the fifth ASEAN-Turkiye Sectoral Dialogue Partnership Meeting in Indonesia.
Trade between Turkiye and ASEAN countries has grown significantly from $6.5 billion in 2010 to $12 billion in 2017, the year Turkiye established its sectoral dialogue partnership. The trade volume reached $14.8 billion in 2022 and $14.6 billion in 2023.
🇷🇺🇹🇷 Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Foreign Minister of the Republic of Türkiye @HakanFidan on the sidelines of #ASEAN events
📍 Vientiane, July 26#RussiaTürkiye pic.twitter.com/IW6vEjvwnz
— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) July 26, 2024
