Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is set to travel to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, to attend the Türkiye-ASEAN Sectoral Dialogue Partnership Meeting, held on the margins of the 57th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), media report said Thursday.
According to diplomatic sources, the minister is set for a visit between July 26 and 27 to attend the sixth tripartite meeting within the scope of the Türkiye-ASEAN Sectoral Dialogue Partnership.
At the tripartite meeting held between the foreign ministers of the sectoral dialogue partner countries, the foreign minister of the ASEAN chair country, and the ASEAN secretary-general, the current state of bilateral cooperation and perspectives for the forthcoming period will be discussed.
It is expected that Fidan will hold bilateral meetings on the margins of the gathering.
Türkiye took the first step toward establishing institutional relations by becoming a party to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, one of ASEAN's fundamental documents, in 2010, and became a sectoral dialogue partner of ASEAN in 2017.
Cooperation within the scope of sectoral dialogue partnership with ASEAN progresses based on the Practical Cooperation Areas Document, which serves as a road map for the relations through projects implemented by Türkiye, ASEAN members and the secretariat.
With a population approaching 690 million, representing approximately 9% of the world's total, the ASEAN region stands out as the third-largest economy in Asia and the fifth-largest in the world, with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $3.7 trillion, positioning it as a global economic center.
Türkiye sees ASEAN as a key organization in the region, considering its combined economy, dynamic population and strategic location. Its trade volume with ASEAN countries, which stood at $6.5 billion in 2010, increased over the years, reaching $12 billion in 2017 when the sectoral dialogue partnership was established.
Although the increase in trade volume with ASEAN showed a temporary declining trend in 2021 due to the pandemic experienced in Türkiye and around the world, the upward trend continued with the effect of the post-pandemic recovery process, and by 2022, the trade volume reached $14.8 billion, and in 2023, it was realized as $14.6 billion.
