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Erdogan seeks to boost ties with Africa in four-day visit | News | Al Jazeera

The Turk­ish pres­i­dent wants to boost busi­ness ties with African countries.Turkey’s pres­i­dent has promised to boost rela­tions with African coun­tries as he vis­it­ed the Sene­galese cap­i­tal Dakar dur­ing a four-day tour of Cen­tral and West Africa.
“We will con­tin­ue to enhance our rela­tions with African coun­tries on the basis of sin­cer­i­ty and sol­i­dar­i­ty,” Recep Tayyip Erdo­gan said on Tues­day dur­ing a joint press con­fer­ence with his Sene­galese coun­ter­part Macky Sall.
“We exchanged ideas on how we can fur­ther advance our rela­tions in every area,” he said. “We once again glad­ly observed that we share the same deter­mi­na­tion to deep­en our cooperation.”
In 2021, the vol­ume of bilat­er­al trade between Turkey and Sene­gal reached $540m. Erdo­gan has said the goal is to bring the fig­ure to $1bn.
The Turk­ish Coop­er­a­tion and Coor­di­na­tion Agency (TIKA), which “has since 2007 com­plet­ed 186 projects in Sene­gal with a total val­ue of $12m, is deter­mined to main­tain its activ­i­ties,” he said.
Sall praised Turk­ish com­pa­nies that have ini­ti­at­ed var­i­ous invest­ment projects in the coun­try and said invest­ments between the two coun­tries should increase even more.
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The Turk­ish pres­i­dent is set to attend Wednesday’s open­ing cer­e­mo­ny of the Dakar Olympic Sta­di­um, which was con­struct­ed by a Turk­ish company.
Erdo­gan, who set out on Sun­day for the tour, will also vis­it the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of the Con­go and Guinea-Bissau.
In Dakar, the Turk­ish pres­i­dent not­ed that the 3rd Turkey-Africa Part­ner­ship Sum­mit, held in Istan­bul in Decem­ber, set out a roadmap in Turk­ish rela­tions with Africa for 2022 to 2026.
Lead­ers from more than a dozen African coun­tries attend­ed the sum­mit, high­light­ing Turkey’s expand­ing influ­ence on the continent.
Since its 2019 inter­ven­tion in the Libyan civ­il war, Istan­bul has steadi­ly expand­ed its African foot­print as it seeks to replace West­ern influ­ence on the continent.
The Euro­pean Union has sought to counter both Turk­ish and Chi­nese influ­ence, posi­tion­ing itself as “Africa’s part­ner of choice” dur­ing a sum­mit with the African Union ear­li­er this month.
“The Euro­pean Union is the first trad­ing part­ner and the first investor in Africa,” Ursu­la von der Leyen, pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion, said after the two-day sum­mit, which drew to a close on Feb­ru­ary 18. “Indeed, we need a stronger part­ner­ship between us.”
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We will continue to enhance our relations with African countries: Erdoğan — Turkey News

DAKAR

Turkey is an impor­tant mem­ber of the G‑20 plat­form and the 13th largest coun­try in the world by pur­chas­ing par­i­ty, Pres­i­dent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Feb. 21, under­lin­ing the strength of the Turk­ish econ­o­my despite glob­al difficulties.
“Our econ­o­my is resilient to glob­al shocks. We grew our econ­o­my by five per­cent every year despite the insta­bil­i­ty in the region,” Erdoğan said, speak­ing at a busi­ness forum dur­ing his vis­it to the Sene­galese cap­i­tal Dakar as part of his four-day trip to Cen­tral and West Africa.
Turkey will see a more suc­cess­ful year in growth in 2022 as its growth rates approach dou­ble dig­its, Erdoğan stated.
Sene­gal is an export gate­way to West Africa, Erdoğan said, not­ing coop­er­a­tion in the fields of agri­cul­ture, tourism, food and health will be ben­e­fi­cial for the entire region.
Turkey’s pol­i­cy for “open­ing” to Africa was suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed and turned into a part­ner­ship pol­i­cy with Africa in 2013, he said, empha­siz­ing that ongo­ing projects with African part­ner­ships are based on equal part­ner­ship and mutu­al benefit.
Ankara will con­tin­ue to enhance its rela­tions with African coun­tries based on sin­cer­i­ty and sol­i­dar­i­ty, Erdoğan said dur­ing a joint press con­fer­ence with his Sene­galese coun­ter­part, Macky Sall.
The bilat­er­al trade vol­ume between Turkey and Sene­gal reached $540 mil­lion in 2021, the pres­i­dent said, not­ing that Turkey’s aim is to increase this fig­ure to some $1 bil­lion soon.
He added that Turk­ish firms in Sene­gal car­ry out oper­a­tions in the fields of ener­gy, steel pro­duc­tion, health care, food indus­try, ready-mixed con­crete pro­duc­tion and gold processing.
The Turk­ish Coop­er­a­tion and Coor­di­na­tion Agency (TİKA) has final­ized 186 projects in Sene­gal with a total val­ue of $12 mil­lion since 2007, Erdoğan said. The Turk­ish Maarif Foun­da­tion pro­vides edu­ca­tion for 287 stu­dents at 13 schools in the coun­try, he noted.
He thanked Sene­galese author­i­ties for their sup­port in Turkey’s fight against FETÖ. “We have no doubt that this sup­port and sol­i­dar­i­ty will con­tin­ue,” he said.

Erdo­gan, Diplomacy,