No: 223, 2 August 2015

H.E. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey, will pay a visit to Malaysia on 3-5 August 2015 as a special guest of current ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Chair Malaysia, to participate in the 48th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. Foreign Ministers from 27 countries comprising the ASEAN Regional Forum along with 10 ASEAN countries, 10 ASEAN Dialogue Partners, including the EU, the USA, the RF, the PRC and Japan are expected to attend the abovementioned meeting. Turkey has been invited to these meetings as the guest of ASEAN Chairs since 2013.

Turkey aims at developing bilateral relations with the countries in the Asia-Pacific region whose importance in international politics, in global economic and commercial terms is increasing as well as improving institutional cooperation with the regional cooperation organizations. To this end, Turkey became a party to the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) in 2010 as the first step to develop our institutional relations with the ASEAN, which occupies a pivotal position in Southeastern Asia.

During his visit, H.E. Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu will have bilateral talks with Malaysian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of International Trade and Industry and Minister of Defense and with his counterparts from the countries participating in the meetings. In addition, H.E. Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu will deliver a speech in International Islamic University of Malaysia and will be received by Prime Minister of Malaysia.