Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu finalized his five-day official visit to Latin America and the Caribbean last week by drawing attention to the necessity of strategic cooperation with the states in the region.The foreign minister traveled to Argentina, Paraguay and the Dominican Republic as well as Mexico, emphasizing the importance of the respective regions for Turkey in an article he penned for the Latin media organizations Clarin, Excelsior and Acento.The ministerial visit comes one year after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited the region in February 2016, accompanied by approximately 100 businessmen to underline the importance of bilateral cooperation with Latin American countries.

Under the auspices of this, Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu's Mexican counterpart Luis Videgaray said during the latest visit that the two governments have already held seven rounds of talks and are planning to meet again in the coming weeks, adding that Turkey and Mexico "have agreed to give a faster incentive to the search for an agreement."

Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu echoed these remarks, saying that Turkey wants to "intensify talks" on free trade with Mexico, while also proposing measures to strengthen the Mexico, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Turkey and Australia (MIKTA) forum.

Çavuşoğlu asserted that, "Together, we [Turkey and Mexico] will invest further efforts into making this forum more effective, more transparent and more focused on relevant political issues."

As part of his five-day tour, Çavuşoğlu informed reporters of the 13 embassies and one consulate office currently operating out of Latin America and the Caribbean. "We [Turkey] need to strengthen our level of shared management around the world. Turkey, Brazil and Mexico have already become strategic partners [and] in addition to signing a Free Trade Agreement with Chile, we have finalized efforts to sign the same agreements with Mexico, Columbia, Peru and Ecuador," he said.

Meanwhile, Turkey and the Dominican Republic agreed to boost cooperation on tourism, with Çavuşoğlu saying at a joint press conference with his Dominican counterpart Miguel Vargas last week that the agreement aims to increase the flow of tourists in the country. "Our political, economic and cultural cooperation and continuing dialogue with Latin America and the Caribbean are increasing more each day," Turkey's foreign minister asserted.