The head of Turkish diplomacy welcomes "convergences of views" with Senegal
Mevlüt Cavusoglu, Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Reuters
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Mevlüt Cavusoglu left Senegal on Friday evening, after stops in Mali and Guinea-Bissau, in the wake of the Turkish president's official visit to Dakar earlier this year.
Against a backdrop of tensions between Turkey and France - which remains Senegal's largest trading partner - Ankara wants to strengthen its economic cooperation with Dakar, and also relies on diplomatic influence in the region.
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With our correspondent in Dakar,
Charlotte Idrac
The Turkish flag flies on the construction site of the new Turkish embassy in Senegal.
Soon, a Turkish cultural center will also rise from the ground in Dakar.
Ankara is banking on a long-term relationship.
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The Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, who had criticized the day before the “
arrogant
”
declarations
of the French president, “
in an old colonialist reflex
”, yesterday welcomed a “
convergence of views
” with Senegal on the regional situation.
“
We also obviously had the opportunity to discuss regional issues such as Libya.
I said that the African Union and African countries in general must play a greater role.
We also discussed Mali and we were delighted to see that our points of view totally converge
, ”declared Mevlüt Cavusoglu at the end of his audience with Macky Sall.
In Senegal, Turkish investments do not go unnoticed.
The international airport, the Abdou Diouf conference center, the Dakar Arena sports center… The objective is to move up a gear.
"
In our trade, our common intentions to increase the volume to 400 million dollars is only the observation of a potential still under-exploited and an ambition to rebalance its balance
", indicated Amadou Ba, Senegalese Minister of Affairs. foreigners.
Already very present in the public works sector, Turkey is now showing its ambitions in the military field and the defense industry.
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Senegal
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