Babacan, who attended a meeting yesterday of foreign ministers of the African Union in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, met with his counterparts from a number of countries, including Ghana, Mozambique, Egypt and Palestine.
“This is the first time Turkey has attended a meeting of the African Union on the ministerial level,” he told reporters. “Turkey became a strategic partner of the African Union in January. We will periodically hold African Union summits in Turkey, with the first taking place in August. My visit to Sharm el-Sheikh aims at inviting African leaders to Turkey for that meeting. We are also targeting further improvement in our bilateral relations with African nations,” Babacan was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.

The African Union is an intergovernmental organization comprising 53 African nations.

Turkey, Japan, India and the People’s Republic of China are the union’s strategic partners.

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