President Gül Hosts Official Dinner for President Kenyatta
08.04.2014
Hosting an official dinner in honor of President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya at the Çankaya Presidential Palace, President Abdullah Gül pointed out that the relations between the two countries date back to the 16th century, saying: “We will make our contributions to the steps you are taking for the prosperity and development of your country by following in the footsteps of the founder of Kenya, your father, Jomo Kenyatta. The basic elements that will make the dynamism in our relationship permanent are business, trade and mutual investments.”
President Abdullah Gül hosted an official dinner in honor of President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya at the Çankaya Presidential Palace.
DEEP-ROOTED BONDS BETWEEN TURKEY AND KENYA
Drawing attention to the fact that President Kenyatta’s visit is the first presidential visit from Kenya to Turkey, President Gül declared this visit to be a historic one like his state visit to the Sub-Saharan Africa including Kenya back in 2009. He further noted that despite the geographic distance between the two countries, Turkish-Kenyan relations can be traced back to the 16th century, when an Ottoman sailor named Emir Ali Bey set foot in Mombasa. This historical figure, who fought shoulder to shoulder with the people of Kenya against the then invaders, rests in Kenya.
As a culmination of that interaction, the President said, the Ottoman money was printed in Kenya, where he said there are still water ways, bridges, madrasahs, mosques and hamams dating from Ottoman times.
TURKEY AND AFRICA PARTNERSHIP POLICY
Turkey is resolute to carry on its relations, which are rising on such deep-rooted, historical and humanitarian foundations ,with Kenya, the center of East Africa in terms of finance, communications and logistics, within the framework of the Africa Partnership Policy on the basis of mutual benefits, declared the President, adding: “As part of this understanding, in 1968, we opened our embassy in Nairobi which is one of our oldest diplomatic representations in the Sub-Saharan Africa. We have signed a number of important agreements that fortify the contractual infrastructure of our relations in recent years. We also launched Turkish Airlines’ direct flights to Nairobi during my state visit to that country in 2009. We are happy that Kenya opened its embassy in Ankara in 2012. We activated the route between Istanbul and Mombasa as of the end of 2012.”
Reiterating that Kenya is one of Turkey’s most important partners in development across Africa, President Gül said Turkey wishes to augment this cooperation. “We will make our contributions to the steps you are taking for the prosperity and development of your country by following in the footsteps of the founder of Kenya, your father, Jomo Kenyatta. As part of this, we have opened TIKA’s coordination office in Nairobi. The value of the development projects put into practice through TIKA in Kenya is over 1.3 million dollars. The projects pertaining to irrigation and construction of schools will be implemented hand in hand with our Kenyan friends. The basic elements that will make the dynamism in our relationship permanent are business, trade and mutual investments.”
TURKEY’S INTEREST IN HORN OF AFRICA
Turkey, the President continued, also wishes to carry on its cooperation with Kenya, which he reiterated is among the rising stars of the Horn of Africa, in multilateral platforms as well, lauding Kenya, which he noted is a leading country in struggling against the modern piracy, for its great contributions to the regional security and stability through its active presence in peace missions. “We are pleased with the fact that Kenya has assumed term presidency of the East African Community. We appreciate your activities within the body of the Intergovernmental Authority for Development. Kenya’s active foreign policy will not only strengthen our common understanding which can be summed up as ‘Africa’s solutions to Africa’s problems’ but also provide new horizons to our bilateral relations.”
