In the past few months, several developments have taken place between Turkiye and Southeast Asian nations that are worth exploring, especially at a time when regional and global powers are seeking to enhance their relations with countries in that part of the world.

Ahead of the G20 Summit on the Indonesian island of Bali this week, Turkiye and Indonesia signed five cooperation agreements in the fields of defense, technology, forestry, the environment, and development. And a historic moment was witnessed in Bali when the presidents of the two countries announced the launch of a high-level strategic cooperation council.

Turkiye and Indonesia are members of MIKTA, a group of nations that also includes Mexico, South Korea and Australia. The leaders of MIKTA, which aims to strengthen economic and political ties between its members, met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit. Indonesia is to take over the group’s presidency from Turkiye next April.

Ankara has recently engaged in close defense cooperation with both Indonesia and Malaysia. More than 30 Turkish defense industry companies this month displayed their products at a leading defense fair in the Indonesian capital Jakarta. Following this, major Turkish defense manufacturer Roketsan announced its first deal to export the land-to-land, long-range artillery system Khan to Indonesia.

In September, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Indonesia and Malaysia had expressed a keen interest in buying armed drones from Turkish defense firm Baykar. This statement was proven to be true after a report revealed that Ankara will be selling armed drones to Malaysia, following Turkish Aerospace’s winning of a Malaysian tender. This was read by defense experts as signaling the potential decline of Chinese influence in the defense sector of Southeast Asian countries.

Turkiye is also keen to engage in energy cooperation with Southeast Asian countries. Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez this month said: “We traveled to Indonesia and Malaysia. In Malaysia, we discussed the prospects of natural gas exploration and cooperation.”

In July, Turkish-Malaysian relations were advanced from the level of strategic partnership to comprehensive strategic partnership with the aim of strengthening cooperation, particularly in the energy sector, focusing on oil and gas. During Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s four-day trip to Turkiye in July, seven agreements were signed between the two countries in the fields of defense, industry and technology, health, communications and the media.

Both countries also agreed to expand the Malaysia-Turkiye Free Trade Agreement, which was inked in 2014. This was the first free trade agreement Turkiye concluded with an Association of Southeast Asian Nations member. It has since concluded a similar deal with Singapore, another ASEAN member state. Yaakob’s visit to Turkiye was followed by Cavusoglu’s visit to Kuala Lumpur a month later. Following this, in October, Turkish Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop paid official visits to both Malaysia and Indonesia.

People-to-people contact is the most important element in strengthening relations between countries.

Sinem Cengiz

Turkiye shares important platforms, such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation, with some of the ASEAN states, in particular Malaysia and Indonesia. These platforms — the OIC, D-8, MIKTA and ASEAN — serve as crucial mechanisms for Turkiye to share a common perspective with Indonesia and Malaysia on a broad range of regional and global issues.

Malaysia is Turkiye’s largest ASEAN trade partner and it has a central position in Ankara’s Asia Anew Initiative, which is a road map rolled out in 2019 to forge closer ties with Asian countries. Turkiye was granted the status of ASEAN Sectoral Dialogue Partner in 2017. In October, it hosted a four-day event that was attended by ambassadors from eight ASEAN members: Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Brunei, Vietnam, Singapore, Philippines and Malaysia. During this event, the Turkish deputy foreign minister said that Ankara sees ASEAN as a key partner in the Asia-Pacific region.

Turkiye’s relations with Malaysia were further cemented when Malaysian King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah visited the country in August. It was the first visit from Malaysia to Turkiye at the head of state level for nearly 30 years. Erdogan conferred on the Malaysian king the Order of the State of the Republic of Turkiye, the highest state order awarded to foreign nationals, while he gave Erdogan the Order of Chivalry of his country. During this visit, the king, along with Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, visited a Turkish defense company in the capital Ankara, where he inspected weapons facilities and test-drove military vehicles.

Meanwhile, Istanbul this week hosted the 11th general assembly of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties, chaired by Turkiye’s ruling Justice and Development Party. This conference was launched in 2000 to promote exchanges and cooperation between political parties with various ideologies from different Asian countries.

Bilateral visits and institutional relations are significant, but people-to-people contact is the most important element in strengthening relations between countries. In this regard, Turkiye sponsors Southeast Asian students to study in the country. This year, Ankara announced that it would be increasing the number of sponsorships to allow more Malaysians and Indonesians to further their education in Turkiye.

Through its Asia Anew Initiative, Turkiye has been seeking closer ties with Southeast Asian countries, not only through the political field, but also economic and defense. The visits of the last few months, the deals signed and the conferences held indicate that Ankara aims to solidify its relations with these countries both bilaterally and institutionally through regional blocs.

• Sinem Cengiz is a Turkish political analyst who specializes in Turkiye’s relations with the Middle East.

Twitter: @SinemCngz