Friday, 20 February 2009
Turkish President Abdullah Gul said, "we got votes of almost all African nations during the election for new non-permanent members of the UN Security Council. It is a great thing to have confidence of whole African continent. Therefore, we are responsible for Africa."
President Gul left for a four-day tour of Kenya and Tanzania. Before his departure, Gul said at a news conference at Ankara's Esenboga Airport that a crowded delegation of businessmen, representatives of non-governmental organizations and academicians was accompanying him.
"This is the first visit from Turkey to Sub-Saharan Africa on the presidential level. Turkey attaches importance to improvement of its bilateral relations with those countries under its recent policies. There are 12 Turkish embassies in African continent. One of them is located in Kenya. We decided to open embassies in 15 African countries in the coming months. Our newly appointed Ambassador to Tanzania Sander Gurbuz will take his office soon," he said.
"I believe that the visit would yield significant economic results. Our businessmen are looking for new markets. Africa is of great importance to this end," he told reporters.
Gul said, "we got votes of almost all African nations during the election of new non-permanent members of the UN Security Council. It is a great thing to have confidence of whole African continent. Therefore, we are responsible for Africa. 60 percent of issues on agenda of the UN Security Council is concerned with Africa alone. These include unsolved political matters, security issues and humanitarian crises such as famine, drought and epidemics. We need to assist African nations in their efforts to deal with all those."
"Turkey's trade volume with African countries increased to 16 billion USD in 2008. It is targeted to increase the trade volume up to 30 billion USD by the end of 2010. Turkish investments in African countries rose to 6 billion USD in 2008. There are 355 Turkish companies operation in Africa," Gul informed reporters on commercial and economic relations with African nations.
