ZAMBIA

28.11.2020
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Zambia (/ˈzæmbiə, ˈzɑːm-/), officially the Republic of Zambia (Tonga: Cisi ca Zambia; Nyanja: Dziko la Zambia), is a landlocked country in Southern-Central Africa (although some sources consider it part of East Africa). Its neighbours are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique to the southeast, Zimbabwe and Botswana to the south, Namibia to the southwest, and Angola to the west. The capital city is Lusaka, located in the south-central part of Zambia. The population is concentrated mainly around Lusaka in the south and the Copperbelt Province to the northwest, the core economic hubs of the country.

Originally inhabited by Khoisan peoples, the region was affected by the Bantu expansion of the thirteenth century. Following European explorers in the eighteenth century, the British colonised the region into the British protectorates of Barotziland-North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia towards the end of the nineteenth century. These were merged in 1911 to form Northern Rhodesia. For most of the colonial period, Zambia was governed by an administration appointed from London with the advice of the British South Africa Company.

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The onset of industrial copper mining on the Copperbelt in the late 1920s triggered rapid urbanisation. Although urbanisation was overestimated during the colonial period, it was substantial. Mining townships on the Copperbelt soon dwarfed existing centres of population and continued to grow rapidly following Zambian independence. Economic decline on the Copperbelt from the 1970s to the 1990s has altered patterns of urban development but the country’s population remains concentrated around the railway and roads running south from the Copperbelt through Kapiri Mposhi, Lusaka, Choma and Livingstone.

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Relations between Turkey and Zambia

Zambia declared its independence on 24 October 1964. Turkish Government accredited its Embassy in Nairobi (opened on 30 March 1968) to Zambia. From 1994 to 2011, Turkish Embassy in Pretoria became accredited to Zambia. Turkey-Zambia relations gained momentum following the opening of the Turkish Embassy in Lusaka in 2011 and the Zambian Embassy in Ankara in 2013. Turkish Embassy in Lusaka is accredited to Malawi and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) based in Lusaka.

H.E. Edgar Chagwa Lungu, the President of the Republic of Zambia visited Turkey on 8-10 July 2018 to attend the inauguration ceremony of H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the President of the Republic of Turkey. Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Zambia Joseph Malanji visited Turkey on 4-10 July 2018 for the preparations of President’s visit and accompanied him during this visit.

Visits from Turkey to Zambia at Presidential and Ministerial levels were not realized until 2018.

On 28 July 2018, H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the President of the Republic of Turkey paid an official visit to Zambia. This visit constituted the first Presidential level visit from Turkey. In the margins of the visit, the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey with the participation of Turkish and Zambian business people and representatives of the related institutions organized a roundtable meeting. The Ministers of Trade chaired this meeting.

The Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Turkey and Zambia held the second round of the Political Consultations on 10 September 2018 in Ankara.

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