Taking place under the theme 'Solidarity and Partnership for a Common Future,' the four-day event began yesterday in Istanbul. This first summit meeting is intended to allow the leaders of both sides to take stock of the progress made in various areas of development cooperation and look at the future of their relations with a view to further developing and diversifying them.
In an earlier post I noted the benefits such partnership may boast for Turkey, the most obvious being access to resources. Not surprisingly, the country is now eager to sign cooperation accords with Angola where oil reserves are around the 20 billion barrel mark. Sudan's president Bashir is also in attendance at the Summit, likely for similar reasons.
The trade volume between Turkey and the continent allegedly rose by 140% between 2003 and 2007, and 55% in the first half of 2008.
Turkey has declared 2008 as 'Africa's Year.' Africa also had a "year" in 2006, which belonged to the Chinese, and another in 2007 which was claimed by the Indians. At this rate I'm curious to see who will claim the continent come 2009.