ANKARA - Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul met on Wednesday with Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, and Parliamentary Relations Ali Abdi Farah of Djibouti.
Two ministers signed an agreement on cooperation in culture, education, science, press, youth and sports and a cooperation protocol between two foreign ministries.
Speaking in the joint press conference, Gul said that despite the geographical distance between two countries, there was a close friendship between Turkey and Djibouti coming from history.
Touching on strategic importance of Djibouti in its region, Gul said that Djibouti port was one of the most important ports of Africa and stressed that improvement of relations in that respect would be beneficial.
Gul said that Turkey aimed to take new steps in its policies towards Africa and to further improve relations with Djibouti.
Farah stressed importance of the agreements signed between two countries and expressed belief that the agreements would be beneficial to improvement of bilateral relations.
Despite geographical distance, two countries had close and deep relations coming from history, Farah said.
Farah stated that grandfather of National Education General Director of Djibouti was Turkish and also Prime Minister of Djibouti had some relatives having Turkish origin.
Turkish companies should make investments in his country, Farah stressed.
(BRC) 03.03.2004