During a four-day tour of Central and West Africa, Turkey’s president promised to improve relations with African countries while visiting Dakar, Senegal’s capital.
During a joint news conference with his Senegalese colleague Macky Sall on Tuesday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, “We will continue to improve our relations with African countries on the basis of sincerity and solidarity.”
He remarked, “We discussed ideas on how we might advance our relations in every sector.” “We joyfully recognized once again that we have the same desire to enhance our partnership.”
The value of bilateral commerce between Turkey and Senegal reached $540 million in 2021. Erdogan has stated that the goal is to reach $1 billion.
He stated that the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), which “had completed 186 projects in Senegal with a total value of $12 million since 2007,” is “committed to continuing its work.”
Sall congratulated Turkish enterprises for launching numerous investment projects in the country, saying that bilateral investment could grow even further.
The Turkish president will attend the opening ceremony of the Dakar Olympic Stadium, which was built by a Turkish business, on Wednesday.
Erdogan will travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guinea-Bissau as part of his journey, which began on Sunday.
The Turkish president said in Dakar that the 3rd Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit, held in Istanbul in December, established a strategy for Turkish-African cooperation from 2022 to 2026.
The meeting drew leaders from more than a dozen African countries, showing Turkey’s growing clout on the continent.
Istanbul has progressively increased its African presence since its engagement in the Libyan civil war in 2019, as it aims to replace Western influence on the continent.
During a summit with the African Union earlier this month, the European Union sought to challenge both Turkish and Chinese influence by establishing itself as “Africa’s partner of choice.”
“The European Union is Africa’s foremost trading partner and investor,” stated Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, after the two-day summit ended on February 18. “We do, in fact, require a stronger partnership.”
