 Publications Articles A Different Path: Assessing Turkey's Foreign Policy in Latin America Published in Articles Rate this item (0 votes) Search... MONDAY, 11 JULY 2011 A Different Path: Assessing Turkey's Foreign Policy in Latin America By Ariel S. Gonzalez Levaggi (vol. 4, no. 14 of the Turkey Analyst) Never before have Turkey and Latin America been closer than they are at present. Latin America has become an indicator of the extension of Turkey’s capacity for global influence. The regular exchange of high level political visits, the increase of commerce and the slow but sustained advance of cultural relations lays the foundations of a political convergence. From a geopolitical standpoint, the most important emerging association is the one between Turkey and Brazil. The relation of the two rising powers is of significant relevance as they promote a multi-polar international order, and it will bestow accrued legitimacy on them at an international level. The re-elected government of the AKP has a great opportunity to further deepen Turkey’s relations with Latin America, generating opportunities for dialogue and participation on the international stage. BACKGROUND: The government of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has during the last years developed multiple international actions to improve the position of Turkey on the international stage, expanding its political, economical and cultural connections to regions previously considered to be of low strategic relevance, such as sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. During the last eight years Turkey has undergone deep changes at the domestic level as well as in the development of its international relations. From the point of view of the economy, Turkey’s past decade has been marked by macro-economic and commercial expansion and remarkable growth rates. Not only its economic rise, but also its democratic evolution has contributed to a positive, international image of the country. During the management of the AKP, the Turkish foreign policy agenda has been defined by the “strategic depth” doctrine of engagement with neighbors, generating multiple interrelations with in particular the countries of the Middle East, though without abandoning the goal to form part of the European Union. During 2010, two notable events spoke of the new role that Turkey is aspiring to on the international stage: the Tripartite Agreement among Iran, Brazil and Turkey for the Iranian Nuclear Plan, and the Gaza flotilla incident that led to a clash with Israel. In this frame, Latin America, as well as Africa is of secondary importance within Turkey’s general strategy. The only important international forum which Turkey shares with some countries of the Latin America, besides the United Nations, is the G20. However, one of the reasons why Turkey has shown a disposition to global diplomatic projection has been its growing commercial and political presence in both continents. Turkey’s interest in Latin America is related to the objective of diversifying its international relations; by supporting the multi-polarization of the international system and the centers of global decision-making, Turkey seeks to become less dependent on the West. Its participation in the G20 as well as the Tripartite Agreement of Iran, Brazil, Turkey in 2010, speak of a process, though only on an initial stage so far, of increased self-determination of its international behavior. During the opening ceremony of the Latin America Research Center at the Ankara University in July 2009, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu underlined that “Africa and Latin America form the axis of the new panoramas formulated in Turkey’s foreign policy. In fact, they have an important role in Turkish foreign policy”. He went on to add that likewise, “Latin America plays a very important role in the conversion of Turkey’s regional effect into a world effect.” Thus, in the international strategy of the AKP, Latin America becomes an indicator of the extension of Turkey’s capacity of global influence. Yet even though the AKP government has pursued an active policy towards Latin America, the foundations of the new Turkish policy towards the region were in fact laid with the official visit of President Süleyman Demirel to Argentina, Brazil and Chile in 1995 and which was followed by the elaboration of the “Action Plan for Latin America and the Caribbean” which set the guidelines for the development of relations with the countries of the region. Turkey’s Latin American policy was then re-launched with the declaration of the “Year of Latin America and the Caribbean” in 2006. Bilateral and multilateral business meetings, the high level visits of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Mexico, Brazil and Chile and the visits to Turkey in 2009 of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina in 2011 served as impulses for an exponential increase in commerce.