Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy, after his party’s historic victory in the July 21 parliamentary election, paid his first official visit to Turkey on Aug. 7-8. Although it was planned only a short time earlier, the political and economic agenda was intense and expectations were very high for his two-day visit.
Among the issues on the packed agenda: the Turkish-Ukrainian free trade agreement; the intentions to attract more Turkish investments to Ukraine in energy, agriculture, and manufacturing; the contribution by Turkish companies in infrastructure investments highly needed by Ukraine; and diversification and enhancement of cooperation in the defense industry.
The first day of the visit was scheduled for official contacts in Ankara and the second day of the visit was mainly allocated for the program in Istanbul, where Zelensky attended the Turkish Ukrainian Business Forum, visited the Orthodox Patriarchate of Fener and inspected Turkish defense industry companies.
Zelensky knows Turkey
Zelensky likes to spend his holidays in Turkey. His short holiday with his family in Turkey, after being elected as president, was his first travel abroad after the elections. Zelensky is a leader who is well-acquainted with Turkish people. He pays special attention to personal relations and contacts, a characteristic usually observed in Mediterranean leaders.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a leader who places importance in personal friendships in international contacts. In the past, friendly relations between the leaders of Turkey and Ukraine have played an important role in the positive development of relations, especially political and human relations.
It has, therefore, been important to accomplish a positive environment at the meeting of two presidents in Ankara, and this was achieved exceedingly. Erdoğan emphasized once again Turkey’s support regarding the integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, particularly for Crimea. In this regard, Turkey may undoubtedly be one of the allies of Ukraine and also may cooperate on issues such as reintegration and reconstruction of the war-torn eastern Donbas region. As Erdoğan reminded, Turkish diplomats have chaired the special monitoring mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe for the last two terms.
Zelensky had become quite popular in Turkey even before the visit for his colorful personality who started his political career after show business. He has had such great achievement in politics in such a short time. Finally, he asked foreign investors to come to Ukraine and pledged to protect their investments, in a video prepared in English. This popularity, undoubtedly, played a significant role in the participation of more than 500 business people in the Turkish-Ukrainian Business Forum held in İstanbul. The high turnout came even though the event was announced just a week ago and timed just before a religious holiday in Turkey.
‘Win-win’ situation
In his speech at the forum, Zelensky indicated that they are experiencing and will continue to experience a real transformation in Ukraine and that they are waiting for Turkish investments, especially in the fields such as agriculture, energy, tourism and infrastructure, and used, with a fluent accent, the expression ‘’kazan-kazan’’ in Turkish which means “win-win” in English which is also frequently used by Erdoğan. It emphasizes a concept where both countries and their businesspeople are expected to gain mutually. By his peaceful, frank and modest personality, Zelensky won the approval of participants. It is obvious that an upwards wave is surging. The interest of the Turkish business community to Ukraine is even higher, compared to the times when structural reforms were speeded up after the EuroMaidan Revolution that ended President Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency in 2014.
Praise for Honcharuk
Another person who has attracted the attention and won the approval of the representatives of the Turkish business community is Oleksiy Honcharuk, the deputy head of the Ukrainian Presidential Administration.
In a series of meetings held all night long before the forum, Honcharuk listened to the problems of the Turkish companies operating in Ukraine and expressly and sincerely put forward the things that can be done, but also the obstacles that cannot be overcome in the short term. He attracted attention by his command of issues, figures, and made a nice impression by his positive energy, dynamism, and frankness. Honcharuk also shared his reform plans and some of the participants expressed their doubts regarding how such a scale of positive changes can be achieved in such a short time and how anti-reformist powers may allow them. My view is that the new administration’s competence in using technology and its determination for digitalizing state services will be influential in reaching those goals. Technology brings transparency, and transparency brings competition and fairness.
Another important development in the visit has been the establishment of a joint venture between Baykar Defence, a Turkish defense industry company, and Ukrspetseskport, a Ukrainian state arms trade enterprise; in the fields of high-sensitivity arms and aviation-space technologies.
Goal: More than double trade
The presidents reiterated their intentions to increase annual trade volume between Turkey and Ukraine from the current $4.2 billion annually to $10 billion. They also pledged to sign the free trade agreement between the two countries this year. Honcharuk shared his view with the businesspeople that the free trade agreement will be a top priority for the new government. The upcoming period before the next Turkish Ukrainian High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council meeting provides a good opportunity to iron out remaining problems.
Structural reforms carried out in Ukraine in the last five years surpassed the changes made in the first 23 years of independence. However, they are not enough to improve living standards.
The costs of many public services have soared, but revenues have not increased at the same level.
In many fields where the public interacts with the state, such as roads, hospitals, etc., a tangible improvement was not achieved. Now the public wants to see changes that will improve their lives. Zelensky is aware of this sentiment. Selecting Turkey for a visit now is not a coincidence.
Zelensky’s targeted annual growth rate of 5-7 percent and $5 billion a year in infrastructure spending cannot be achieved by Ukraine alone. The political and economic support of Turkey, the Black Sea neighbor and strategic partner, has been refurbished. An encouraging message has been given to Turkey to further improve and diversify its investments, as a country which is one of the three countries with the highest investments in Ukraine since 2014.
Turkey has significantly improved the living standards of its citizens by enormous infrastructure investments from roads to hospitals, constructed by the public-private partnership method. Its 42 construction companies are among the largest 225 construction companies in the world. Turkish construction and operation companies have the financing to provide swift contributions to Ukraine.
Zelensky achieved almost every goal of his visit. As well he won the hearts of the Turkish business community. There is no doubt that we are going to see many Turkish investments in Ukraine in the upcoming period, mainly in the fields of infrastructure, agriculture, tourism, and energy.
Burak Pehlivan is the chairman of the International Turkish Ukrainian Businessmen Association, known as TUID, with more than 200 members.
