Officials from the Turkish prime minister's office were not immediately available to confirm the visit. However, on its Web site the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) quoted Ghana's Foreign Minister Akwasi Osei Adjei as announcing the visit upon his return from İstanbul, where he represented his country last week at a Turkish-African summit that brought together leaders from African Union nations and Turkey to discuss ways to expand cooperation in economic areas.

"Mr. Akwasi Osei Adjei said Ghana tabled a position at the summit calling for an action to see to the implementation of all instruments agreed upon in İstanbul. He explained that the continent is saddled with so many agreements and arrangements awaiting implementation, and more cannot be added. The foreign minister said Turkey has expressed interest to invest in such areas as energy, education, culture, road, tourism and agriculture. On bilateral issues Turkey gave a firm promise to open an embassy in Accra," the GBC reported.

The Turkey-Africa Cooperation Summit, which took place Aug. 18-21, marked a landmark step in expanding ties between Turkey and the African continent. Fifty member states of the 53-nation African Union were represented at the summit. Six African countries were represented at the level of heads of state, while five of them were represented by vice presidents, six by heads of government, one by deputy head of government and the rest by either their foreign minister or some other senior-level official. Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho were the three countries not represented at the summit due to a meeting in South Africa.

Eager to solidify cooperation with Africa, Turkey plans to open 15 new embassies in African countries in the coming years and to increase aid to Africa.

Todays Zaman