In New York, Gul: "African union declared Turkey as one of its three strategic partners"

President Abdullah Gul yesterday attended opening session of a high-level meeting on Africa's development needs at the 63th session of the UN General Assembly in New York. Afterwards, Gul delivered a speech on Turkey's approach to this issue at a round table meeting. In his speech to the assembly, Gul underlined the growing trade volume between Turkey and Africa, saying that it rose to double digit figures since 2004 and that exceeded $12 billion in 2007. Stating that their target was to boost these figures up to $30 billion until 2010, Gul announced Turkey's decision to open 15 new embassies in Africa to increase its current number of embassies to 37 in the continent. Gul said that the African Union declared Turkey as one of its three strategic partners, adding that this intensified Turkey's willingness to enhance relations. Gul is set to hold bilateral talks with fellow UN members to promote Turkey's bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for 2009-2010. Gul yesterday met with UN General Assembly President Miguel D'escoto and then Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC) Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.