Minister Özer stated during his speech at the meeting organized with the purpose of boosting cooperation in education with ASEAN countries that Asian countries have been showing impressive rise in many fields and expressed his happiness about this improvement as the Minister of a country whose roots are in Asia.

 

Özer mentioned that Asian countries become stronger in the global competition with the increasing number of Asian countries who joined global finance and power centers adding that, "We consider development of relations with Asian region in all fields varying from economy to science and technology, from education to culture and arts as a foreign policy priority. Like we always mention, the geopolitical location of our country also provides many important opportunities."

 

Özer stated that his Ministry gives great importance to relations with ASEAN which is the center of historical transformation of Asia and expressed his happiness about the gradual development of the association since its establishment in 1967.

 

"Our relations with ASEAN is among the most important elements of "Asia Again" initiative declared in 2019 under the auspices of our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan," said Özer.

 

Minister Özer went on to say that, "we share the target of ASEAN o peaceful, stable and prosperous Asia and respect its responsibility to maintain multilateralism. It is clear that education is very important in order to achieve such target. Within this context, it is natural for ASEAN to consider education as one of its main priorities. We also share its perspective based on considering education as the main element of economic and social development. Sectoral dialogue partnership with ASEAN signed in 2017 provided a positive improvement in our relationship. ASEAN-Türkiye Sectoral Dialogue Partnership: Practical Cooperation Areas for 2019-2023 was signed in Jakarta in 2019 and our Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that they have allocated 1 million dollars to the fund established for the finance of projects during the trilateral meeting in Bangkok on July 30, 2019. The Ministry allocated an additional 690 thousand dollars in April, 2021."

 

Stressing that there has been a strong cooperation between Türkiye and ASEAN countries in education and education technologies based on mutual benefit principle, Özer said, "Last year in August, we had decided that cooperation in education was a priority during the 3rd trilateral meeting about sectoral dialogue. More than 2 thousand students from ASEAN member states are getting education at different levels in our country. There has been a gradual increase in the number of Asian students who prefer to study in our country. This situation and development of education relations provides important opportunities."

 

Minister Özer went on to say that: "Türkiye has been going through important transformations in education. I would like to use this opportunity to say that we are ready to boost education relations with ASEAN states or on a bilateral level."

 

Ambassadors and diplomats in the meeting stated that developments achieved in the education system in Türkiye are significant and thanked Özer for the harmonic cooperation between ASEAN and his Ministry.

 

Meanwhile, the Philippine Ambassador to Ankara, Maria Elena Algabre said that Türkiye has taken important steps in the safe digitalization of education and achieved important success in vocational and environmental education. First Secretary of Singapore Embassy Mak Yong Yang stressed that there has been a harmonic cooperation in education between ASEAN and Türkiye and expressed his wish that this positive partnership will gradually increase in time.

 

Cambodian Ambassador Kim Heng Meas mentioned the education cooperation signed between Türkiye and Cambodia in 2018 and thanked Türkiye's support to his country. Meanwhile, Brunei Ambassador Shafiee Kassim stated that cooperation between his country and Türkiye will boost and students will play the role of an Ambassador.

 

Ambassadors and diplomats stated that they wanted to maintain positive interaction in education between ASEAN and Türkiye and praised developments in education in Türkiye. Guests thanked Özer for the harmonic cooperation.