ANKARA: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim says his meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, scheduled for Wednesday (Jan 7), will centre on efforts to strengthen collaboration in areas including trade, investment, diplomacy, education, security, culture and tourism.
"I regard this visit as very important. The President joked with me that if I did not come, he would no longer want to be friends because he had already visited Malaysia. I consider him a close friend," he said in his speech at the 'Sentuhan Madani' programme with the Malaysian Diaspora here on Tuesday (Jan 6, local time).
About 200 Malaysians attended the event, which was also graced by the Prime Minister's wife, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail; Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir; Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani; Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan; and Malaysian Ambassador to Turkiye Sazali Mustafa Kamal.
Erdogan had undertaken a two-day official visit to Malaysia in February, 2025.
Anwar said his first official visit to Türkiye comes nearly three years into his tenure as Prime Minister and fulfils Erdogan's repeated invitations, urging him not to delay the visit.
"However, I told him that even without an official visit, I had previously come to Türkiye twice, with the first visit taking place after the major earthquake that struck the country.
"After that, I stopped over here for several hours from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, before travelling to Cairo, Egypt, to meet President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as part of efforts to seek support and firm commitments among Islamic countries in defending the plight of the Palestinian people, particularly in Gaza," he said.
Earlier, Anwar arrived at Esenboga International Airport here at 7.13 pm local time (12.13 am Malaysian time) to begin his official visit, which runs until Jan 8. – Bernama
