VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia and Turkey have been strategic partners since 2011. The two countries have close relations in various fields, not only strong bilateral cooperation but also collaborating in various organizations such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), G20, Mexico, Indonesia, Korea , Turkey and Australia (MIKTA) cooperation, and ASEAN. This was conveyed by Turkish Ambassador to Indonesia Mahmud Erol Kılıç in his remarks at the 96th Turkish National Day reception in Jakarta, Tuesday night (29/10). Considering the enormous potential of the two countries, Mahmud Erol Kılıç believes Indonesia and Turkey have plenty of room to expand relations especially in trade and industry.

"Given the high potentials of Turkey and Indonesia, as two fast developing countries, we believe that there is much room for further development of our brotherly relations, especially in the fields of trade and the fast industry. Indonesia is one of the largest trade partners of Turkey in the Asia Pacific region. This showed intensify or efforts to achieve the common target of 10 billion dollars bilateral trade volume by the year 2023," said Mahmud Erol Kilic.

Turkish Ambassador Mahmud Erol Kılıç added that relations between Indonesia and Turkey had been ongoing since the 16th century in the era of the Ottoman Empire. In the 19th century, Turkey had its Consulate General in Batavia or Jakarta. Indonesia and Turkey will celebrate 70 years of diplomatic relations in 2020. (VOI / AHM)