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Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced Türkiye's ambitious goal to reach $10 billion in bilateral trade with Malaysia while delivering sharp criticism of the current international system and calling for urgent action on the Gaza crisis during his visit to the Malaysian capital.
Speaking to Bernama TV during the Seventh Türkiye-ASEAN Sectoral Dialogue Partnership Meeting, Fidan revealed that trade between the countries has recently surpassed $5 billion.
"We just exceeded $5 billion and our nearest target will actually be $10 billion. This is an area we are working very intensively on," Fidan stated.
Top Turkish diplomat noted the deep historical connections between Türkiye and Malaysia, describing them as "extremely strong and solid relationships historically" with "unbreakable bonds between the two nations."
"Malaysia and Türkiye have historically extremely strong, solid relationships. And there are unbreakable bonds between the two nations. Based on culture, history and our faith, these bring us together. But at this stage, as people of this era, it is our duty to use these strong bonds and carry our cooperation to a form closer to modern times," Fidan explained.
Fidan highlighted the importance of leadership diplomacy, noting the close relationship between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim by stating: "The leaders have very close friendly relations and they have strong ties arising from these close relationships."
"We, as foreign ministers, really benefit from this, we benefit from this close relationship. Because their close relationship provides us with a very important foundation for advancing our agenda and acting together," he added.
When asked about the timeline for reaching the $10 billion target, Fidan referenced President Erdogan's demanding expectations with characteristic directness.
"If you know President Erdogan, there is only one timeline, and that is yesterday. Not even today. So we should have reached this $10 billion yesterday according to President Erdogan. This shows us how urgent the situation is and reveals how suitable an environment we have for developing this and increasing trade," he said.
The minister stressed the need to increase awareness among investors and business people on both sides while highlighting opportunities in defense industry cooperation and energy partnerships.
"We need to increase the awareness of our investors and businessmen on both sides. This is what we are trying to do. And again, not only business circles, but there are also points where inter-governmental engagement is necessary, in terms of trade and investment," Fidan added.
The minister noted significant growth in people-to-people connections by stating: "Turks are showing great interest in traveling to countries in the ASEAN region. They are trying to get to know this region because they traveled to Europe for a very long time."
Educational exchanges are also expanding. "We see many students again from Türkiye to ASEAN and from ASEAN to Türkiye, there is an interaction in this sense too. These are really exciting areas and give us great hope."
Fidan specifically identified Malaysia's strengths in technology and microelectronics as key areas for cooperation.
"Especially technology and microelectronics. Malaysia has a very important competitive advantage in this regard. This is the point we especially focus on and we want to benefit from it," he explained.
He noted that Turkish defense industry companies, particularly large-scale ones, want to benefit from opportunities in Malaysia by stating: "I know that our defense industry and defense industry companies, especially our large-scale companies, want to benefit from the opportunities here. This is an important area especially in terms of technological cooperation, and so is energy."
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The minister outlined how Türkiye's defense industry experience could complement ASEAN's peaceful regional environment. "Because Türkiye has established an extremely important, solid foundation in the defense industry. Because our region is really a troubled region. We had to defend ourselves."
"This place, the ASEAN region, is generally a region where more peaceful relations exist. Perhaps in this sense, there was no need to develop much defense industry. In this sense, we can complement each other," he added.
Regarding energy cooperation, Fidan highlighted potential partnerships between Turkish state institutions and Malaysia's Petronas. "You have 'Petronas', and we also have public institutions working in this field. I think there is a lot these companies can do together in third countries," he said, referring to both renewable and traditional energy sources.
The Foreign Minister commented on the significant development in Turkish business' engagement across Southeast Asia by noting: "Especially Turkish businessmen and investors, particularly in the last few years, are increasing their engagement and investments in ASEAN countries. This is a very important plus for us."
He described the relationship with ASEAN as uniquely positive compared to other regional partnerships.
"When we look at ASEAN countries, we have a completely 100 percent positive agenda. This gives us great support and provides us with an area where we can work intensively and advance our interests," he stated.
Fidan also noted the absence of historical problems between Türkiye and ASEAN member states. "Between the ASEAN region and Türkiye and ASEAN, there has been no problem in history. Türkiye has not had any problems with ASEAN countries either. This gives us a great opportunity to advance a positive agenda."
Addressing the Gaza situation, Fidan delivered strong condemnation of ongoing events.
"Unfortunately, the ongoing genocide in Gaza is truly a heartbreaking development and events that we can never forget, very painful events are happening for all of us. And it is a very big failure in terms of humanity in general, but also especially a big failure for Muslims," he stated.
He emphasized the need for coordinated international action. "Because if we do not come together in the face of such barbarism, one day it may come and find us too."
Fidan described conditions in Gaza in stark terms: "Because two million Gaza residents are currently being held captive and Gaza is like a concentration camp. It resembles a concentration camp from World War II. The Palestinian people here are being deliberately starved and subjected to harsh conditions. All of this is happening before all our eyes. We cannot allow this to continue."
The Foreign Minister specifically praised Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's stance on Palestinian issues. "We know that he raises his voice regarding the oppressed Palestinians and the occupied Palestinian territories, and we follow it closely. In this sense, we need to achieve much closer cooperation. We need to act shoulder to shoulder. Because if we do not come together in the face of such barbarism, one day it may come and find us too."
Regarding diplomatic relations with Western countries, particularly the United States under President Trump, Fidan shared Türkiye's experience. "Especially in terms of relations with President Trump, our experience is this: when you maintain an open and honest dialogue with the Trump administration, there is a lot you can do together."
"Our experience as Türkiye shows this. As you know, President Erdogan also has solid relations with President Trump," he stated.
Fidan outlined Türkiye's approach to regional mediation efforts, describing it as both necessity and opportunity by noting: "Because of the unique characteristics of our region, as I mentioned before, you don't really have many options. Because you will either fight or mediation will take place."
"In this sense, mediation is not only in our interest, but also our regional responsibility as a responsible country in the region," he added.
Turkish top diplomat explained President Erdogan's mediation philosophy, "Therefore, you first need to identify, examine and use specific diplomatic methodologies for every type of problem. Therefore, you need to start implementing this strategy, and the goal here is to first find diplomatic solutions to all existing problems. To be able to do this, you need to be transparent. You need to feel sympathy for the other side."
"Our President (Erdogan) always says this: every solution must be a win-win solution. You cannot always think only of yourself. When you engage in diplomacy, you also need to focus on the interests of the other side. Otherwise, this cannot be real solution and diplomacy," he added.
The Foreign Minister detailed Türkiye's active mediation roles in various global conflicts by stating: "Therefore, we are trying to contribute to mediation activities. We are trying to contribute to ceasefire talks in Gaza. We also contributed a lot during the Israel-Iran War process. We are currently trying to do our best between Russia and Ukraine regarding the ongoing conflict in Ukraine."
"We contributed a lot in the Caucasus, Africa, and there are currently mediation processes in other countries that we continue quietly," he added.
Lastly drawing from his intelligence background, Fidan explained his perspective on diplomacy's importance. "When I was serving militarily and serving in intelligence, I always said this: If diplomats did their jobs better, much less burden would fall on intelligence and military fields."
"When I became Foreign Minister, I said to myself: Now it's time to test this. Because for a very long time, when I worked in the intelligence field, I said that diplomats should do their jobs better. If they do, our work will decrease, I said. This is what I'm trying to do now," Fidan said.
"We are actually in a very problematic region in terms of being able to look at our own problems, our own problems in the region. Especially when we look to the east of our country, Syria, Iraq, Iran and all of these countries have had problems both domestically, externally and even globally, and a very complex series of problems are experienced in this region. And all of these have effects on Türkiye," he added.
Addressing broader global governance issues, Fidan argued for fundamental reform of the post-World War II international order, "Unfortunately, when we look at every international system, when we look at all international system structures developed throughout history, we see that these structures were designed by the victorious parties.
"Therefore, naturally, these systems serve the interests of the victorious parties. But whenever we see this, we see that these systems have a limited shelf life," Fidan stated.
He warned of the consequences of maintaining the current system by stating: "To be honest, my fear is this: if we do not learn a lesson from history, unfortunately, it seems like we will have to experience a very big conflict to establish a new international system. However, as humanity, we should have learned a lesson from history. We should not repeat this mistake."
Fidan noted how technological advances have accelerated historical change, "After the design of the current international system, I think we experienced 3 or 4 consecutive technological revolutions. The invention of transistors and again closed circuits, artificial intelligence, quantum, internet, digitalization. All of these actually accelerate history."
"In addition to nation states, we see that large companies are also on the rise. Not in the traditional sense, but we also see large technology companies. And when we say big technology, there are big financial resources behind it," Fidan noted.
The Foreign Minister presented a stark choice for the international community: "If your intention is to establish sovereignty, if you want to dominate the international system and you are trying to create an environment only for yourself, this is another agenda. But if your intention and policy is to ensure that the international system becomes a system that treats everyone equally and fairly, if it is to create a system where no one is left behind, then the system can also help others."
Fidan lastly issued a stark warning about the consequences of refusing to reform the current system: "If we insist on continuing with the current international system, if we insist on continuing with this balance of interests and this balance of power, what is clear is that we will experience a big crisis."
"We have already started to experience big crises. Look at the war in Ukraine or look at what we experience in Gaza, the Middle East," he concluded.
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