Burkina Faso's FM visits Turkey

Djibrill Yipene Bassole, the minister of foreign affairs and regional cooperation of Burkina Faso, visiting Turkey, yesterday met with his Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan. Speaking to reporters following their meeting, Babacan said that Turkey had decided to open 15 embassies in Africa --one of them would open in Burkina Faso-- by the end of 2009. Economic relations between Turkey and Burkina Faso have been progressing and the trade volume amounting to 6 million USD in 2006 would reach nearly 12 million USD in 2007, Babacan said. For his part, Bassole said that the two countries could cooperate in several areas such as agriculture and textile, and called on Turkish companies to invest in his country. Turkey was working for settlement of stability and peace in the Middle East and Burkina Faso was playing an important role for solution of several problems in West Africa, he said. Bassole was also received by President Abdullah Gul.