Guest: HE Ms Ayşegül Kandaş, Turkish diplomat and Turkey ambassador to South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini

Diplomatic relations between Türkiye and the RSA were established in 1993. Embassy of the RSA in Ankara and the Turkish Embassy in Pretoria were established on 27 February 1993 and 22 March 1994 respectively.

Türkiye has an Honorary General-Consulate in Cape Town. There are RSA’a Honorary General-Consulates in İstanbul, İzmir and Mersin.

Recent high-level visits have contributed a lot for the enhancement of bilateral relations in every field.

There exists willingness on both sides and a great potential for the development of relations between Türkiye and RSA in all fields.

In the Sub-Saharan Africa, RSA is the leading trade partner of Türkiye. Türkiye’s trade with RSA, which is approximately 18 percent of our trade with the Sub-Saharan African countries. Trade volume between two countries in 2019 was 1,3 billion USD (export from Türkiye: 552,5 million USD; import to Türkiye: 757,5 million USD).

Approximately 70 Turkish companies operate in RSA. The value of the Turkish investments in RSA is more than 600 million USD. These investments are mostly in the mining and textile sectors. Moreover, there are many Turkish companies especially in Cape Town and Johannesburg which carry out retail and wholesale, as well as import of textiles, carpets and food products.

The number of Turkish citizens resident in RSA is estimated around 3.600.

Exchange of tourists between Türkiye and RSA has considerably increased since the Turkish Airlines started anew to fly between İstanbul-Johannesburg-Cape Town on 17 September 2007. Turkish Airlines also started direct flights to Cape Town (in October 2015) and to Durban (in November 2015).

Turkish Government, within the framework of Türkiye Scholarships, allocates undergraduate and graduate scholarships to the South African Government every year.

Diplomatic relations between Türkiye and the RSA were established in 1993. Embassy of the RSA in Ankara and the Turkish Embassy in Pretoria were established on 27 February 1993 and 22 March 1994 respectively.

Türkiye has an Honorary General-Consulate in Cape Town. There are RSA’a Honorary General-Consulates in İstanbul, İzmir and Mersin.

Recent high-level visits have contributed a lot for the enhancement of bilateral relations in every field.

There exists willingness on both sides and a great potential for the development of relations between Türkiye and RSA in all fields.

In the Sub-Saharan Africa, RSA is the leading trade partner of Türkiye. Türkiye’s trade with RSA, which is approximately 18 percent of our trade with the Sub-Saharan African countries. Trade volume between two countries in 2019 was 1,3 billion USD (export from Türkiye: 552,5 million USD; import to Türkiye: 757,5 million USD).