Turkish ambassador meets Home Affairs and Transport minister-• Air agreements, security cooperation and counter piracy discussed |23 October 2012

Minister Morgan noted the positive role that the Turkish Republic was playing within Somalia, leading in projects for infrastructure development and other steps that would be key to bringing back normalcy to Somalia and with that, the region as well.

It is to be recalled that the Republic of Turkey hosted the Second Istanbul Somalia Conference, under the theme ‘Preparing Somalia’s Future: Goals for 2015’ which was held from May 31 to June 1, 2012 at the Istanbul Congress Centre.

Besides high level participation of presidents, prime ministers and ministers from 54 countries, representatives of international and regional organisations such as the secretary general of the UN, the President of the African Union Commission, and the secretary general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation also took part in the conference.

Discussions between Minister Morgan and Ambassador Aksoy covered the potential for air transport agreements between Turkey and Seychelles, thus enabling the national carriers from each respective nation potential air access, impacting positively on the tourism market, trade and the economy in general.

The development of a bilateral agreement on police to police cooperation and on collaboration on security issues, anti-piracy matters, combating money laundering, counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism was also discussed.

Minister Morgan thanked the ambassador for the visit, expressing his satisfaction and hope that the topics of mutual interests raised between the two countries would soon materialise and with that, opening up more opportunities for the two governments to work more closely together.