Niger’s President Abdourahamane Tchiani met President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday in Ankara in his inaugural visit to Türkiye. The two-day visit is an opportunity for the leader of the West African country to deepen blossoming ties with Türkiye and vice versa.

Tchiani, invited by Erdoğan, arrived with a busy agenda on bilateral relations, including talks on regional security, counterterrorism and economic ties.

Two countries escalated the level of relations after Tchiani came to power in 2023. Since 2023, the West African country also downgraded ties with the United States and France. Niger, in the meantime, seeks to reach out to new partners elsewhere.

Türkiye’s diplomatic relations with Niger date back to 1967, but Ankara opened its first embassy in Niamey in 2012, months before Niger set up its own embassy in the Turkish capital. Since 2012, two countries signed 29 agreements. Erdoğan, then prime minister, visited Niger in 2013, one year before the Nigerien president visited Türkiye. In 2012, the two countries signed the "Agreement of Trade, Economic and Technical Cooperation,” laying the groundwork for future economic relations.

Although diplomatic ties remained stable, Türkiye sought to expand cooperation further with the implementation of the Africa Action Plan. This evolved into the Africa Partnership Policy starting in 2013. In the past two decades under Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party) governments, Türkiye’s relations with the African countries flourished in every field, from trade to security, culture and development. The country signed trade and economic cooperation agreements with 50 African countries in recent years. It signed agreements of incentives for mutual investments with 32 countries, agreements to prevent double taxation with 17 countries, military framework agreements with 35 countries, military training cooperation deals with 21 countries and defense industry cooperation agreements with 29 countries. It set up joint business councils with 49 African countries. In other venues, Türkiye’s Eximbank became the first non-African shareholder of Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) in 2023. Türkiye is also hosting some 65,000 international students from African countries. In terms of development aid, Türkiye contributed to the construction of hospitals in Niger, Sudan and Somalia.

Türkiye increased the number of its diplomatic missions to 44 in 2024, from 12 in 2002, across the continent. Similarly, the number of embassies of the African countries in Türkiye rose to 38 in 2024, from only 10 in 2008.

Türkiye’s trade volume with the African countries rose to about $40 billion by the end of 2025, from around $4.3 billion in 2002. Turkish investments in Africa rose to $10 billion in 2024, from $67 million in 2003. Turkish contractors are behind more than 2,000 projects across the continent.

Elsewhere, Türkiye boosted ties with the African Union (AU), with its status in the body elevated from observer to strategic partner in 2008. In the same year, Istanbul hosted the first edition of the Türkiye-Africa Partnership Summit. The summit’s next edition is expected to be held later this year after a five-year hiatus.